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Flawed Hero

The shock­ing sto­ry of the case against Aus­trali­a’s most high­ly dec­o­rat­ed sol­dier, Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, and the defama­tion tri­al of the century.

With a Vic­to­ria Cross and Medal for Gal­lantry, Ben Roberts-Smith was the most high­ly dec­o­rat­ed Aus­tralian sol­dier, the best of the best. When he returned to civil­ian life, he became a poster boy for a nation hun­gry for war­rior heroes. He embod­ied the myth of the clas­sic Anzac, sev­en-foot-tall and bul­let­proof. But as his pub­lic rep­u­ta­tion con­tin­ued to grow, inside the army rumours were circulating.

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Crossing The Line

War is bru­tal. But there are lines that should nev­er be crossed. In mid-2017, whis­pers of exe­cu­tions, and cov­er-ups with­in Aus­trali­a’s most secre­tive and elite mil­i­tary unit, the SAS, reached Walk­ley Award-win­ning jour­nal­ist Nick McKen­zie. He and Chris Mas­ters began an inves­ti­ga­tion that would not only reveal shock­ing truths about Ben Roberts-Smith VC but plunge the reporters into the defama­tion tri­al of the century.

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A Heart That Works

In this mem­oir of loss, acclaimed writer and come­di­an Rob Delaney grap­ples with the frag­ile mir­a­cle of life, the mys­ter­ies of death, and the ques­tion of pur­pose for those left behind.

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The Aeneid

Flee­ing the ash­es of Troy, Aeneas, Achilles’ mighty foe in the Ili­ad, begins an incred­i­ble jour­ney to ful­fill his des­tiny as the founder of Rome. His voy­age will take him through stormy seas, entan­gle him in a trag­ic love affair, and lure him into the world of the dead itself — all the way tor­ment­ed by the venge­ful Juno, Queen of the Gods. Ulti­mate­ly, he reach­es the promised land of Italy where, after bloody bat­tles and with high hopes, he founds what will become the Roman empire.

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The Ninth Life Of A Diamond Miner: A Memoir

Grace Tame has nev­er walked on mid­dle ground. From a young age, her life was defined by uncer­tain­ty — by trau­ma and strength, sad­ness and hope, ter­ri­ble lows and won­drous highs. As a teenag­er she found the courage to speak up after expe­ri­enc­ing awful and ongo­ing child sex­u­al abuse. This fight to find her voice would not be her last. In 2021 Grace stepped square­ly into the pub­lic eye as the Aus­tralian of the Year, and was the cat­a­lyst for a tidal wave of con­ver­sa­tion and action. Aus­tralians from all walks of life were inspired and moved by her fire and pas­sion. Here she was using her voice, and encour­ag­ing oth­ers to use theirs too. The Ninth Life of a Dia­mond Min­er is Grace’s sto­ry, in Grace’s words, on Grace’s terms. Like Grace, it is sharply intel­li­gent, deeply felt and often blis­ter­ing­ly fun­ny. And, as with all her work, it offers a con­struc­tive and opti­mistic vision for a bet­ter future for all of us.

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The Name Of The Rose

The year is 1327. Fran­cis­cans in a wealthy Ital­ian abbey are sus­pect­ed of heresy, and Broth­er William of Baskerville arrives to inves­ti­gate. When his del­i­cate mis­sion is sud­den­ly over­shad­owed by sev­en bizarre deaths, Broth­er William turns detective.

William col­lects evi­dence, deci­phers secret sym­bols and cod­ed man­u­scripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey where extra­or­di­nary things are hap­pen­ing under the cov­er of night. A spec­tac­u­lar pop­u­lar and crit­i­cal suc­cess, The Name of the Rose is not only a nar­ra­tive of a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion but an aston­ish­ing chron­i­cle of the Mid­dle Ages.

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France: An Adventure History

A whol­ly orig­i­nal his­to­ry of France, filled with a life­time’s knowl­edge and pas­sion-by the author of the New York Times best­seller Parisians. Begin­ning with the Roman army’s first record­ed encounter with the Gauls and end­ing in the era of Emmanuel Macron, France takes read­ers on an end­less­ly enter­tain­ing jour­ney through French his­to­ry. Fre­quent­ly hilar­i­ous, always sur­pris­ing, Gra­ham Rob­b’s France com­bines the styl­is­tic ver­sa­til­i­ty of a nov­el­ist with the deep under­stand­ing of a schol­ar. Rob­b’s own adven­tures and dis­cov­er­ies while liv­ing, work­ing, and trav­el­ing in France con­nect this tour through space and time with on-the-ground expe­ri­ence. There are scenes of wars and rev­o­lu­tions from the plains of Provence to the slums and boule­vards of Paris.

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Heart Of Darkness and Other Stories

‘The hor­ror! The hor­ror!’. These are Kurtz’s final words in Joseph Con­rad’s ‘Heart of Dark­ness’, the sto­ry of a man who trav­els into the jun­gle to seek his for­tune and who instead finds an all-con­sum­ing moral and spir­i­tu­al wilder­ness. Con­rad’s endur­ing tale served as a touch­stone for many works of fic­tion inspired by its som­bre theme. This col­lec­tion also includes an addi­tion­al five of Con­rad’s best stories.

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The Man In The High Castle

It is 1962 and the Sec­ond World War has been over for sev­en­teen years: peo­ple have now had a chance to adjust to the new order. But it’s not been easy. The Mediter­ranean has been drained to make farm­land, the pop­u­la­tion of Africa has vir­tu­al­ly been wiped out and Amer­i­ca has been divid­ed between the Nazis and the Japan­ese. In the neu­tral buffer zone that divides the two super­pow­ers lives the man in the high cas­tle, the author of an under­ground best­seller, a work of fic­tion that offers an alter­na­tive the­o­ry of world his­to­ry in which the Axis pow­ers did­n’t win the war. The nov­el is a ral­ly­ing cry for all those who dream of over­throw­ing the occu­piers. But could it be more than that?

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Voss

Set in nine­teenth cen­tu­ry Aus­tralia Voss is the sto­ry of the secret pas­sion between an explor­er and a naive young woman. Although they have met only a few times Voss and Lau­ra are joined by over­whelm­ing obses­sive feel­ings for each oth­er. Voss sets out to cross the continent.

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