Gail Jones - Five Bells (Random House)

Synopsis
On a radiant day in Sydney, four adults converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Crowds of tourists mix with the locals, enjoying the glorious surroundings and the play of light on water. But each of the four carries a complicated history from elsewhere; each is haunted by past intimacies, secrets and guilt: Ellie is preoccupied by her sexual experiences as a girl, James by a tragedy for which he feels responsible, Catherine by the loss of her beloved brother in Dublin and Pei Xing by her imprisonment during China's Cultural Revolution.

Told over the course of a single Saturday, Five Bells describes four lives which chime and resonate, sharing mysterious patterns and symbols. A fifth figure at the Quay, a barely glimpsed child, reminds us that some patterns are imprecise and do not resolve. By night-time, when Sydney is drenched in a rainstorm, each life has been transformed. Five Bells is a novel of singular beauty and power by one of Australia's most gifted novelists.

Biography
Gail Jones lives in Sydney and teaches at the University of Western Sydney. Her books have won numerous literary awards in Australia. She is the author of two collections of short stories and five novels including Sixty Lights which was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, Dreams of Speaking which was shortlisted for both the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Kibble Literary Award and long listed for the Orange Prize, Sorry which was shortlisted for the Kibble Literary Award and long listed for the Orange Prize and Black Mirror which won the Kibble Literary Award in 2003.

Gillian Mears - Foal's Bread (Allen & Unwin)

Synopsis
The sound of horses' hooves turns hollow on the farms west of Wirri. If a man can still ride, if he hasn't totally lost the use of his legs, if he hasn't died to the part of his heart that understands such things, then he should go for a gallop. At the very least he should stand at the road by the river imagining that he's pushing a horse up the steep hill that leads to the house on the farm once known as One Tree.

Set in hardscrabble farming country and around the country show high-jumping circuit that prevailed in rural New South Wales prior to the Second World War, Foal's Bread tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and their fortunes as dictated by the vicissitudes of the land.

It is a love story of impossible beauty and sadness, a chronicle of dreams 'turned inside out', and miracles that never last, framed against a world both tender and unspeakably hard. Written in luminous prose and with an aching affinity for the landscape the book describes, Foal's Bread is the work of a born writer at the height of her considerable powers. It is a stunning work of remarkable originality and power, one that confirms Gillian Mears' reputation as one of our most exciting and acclaimed writers.

Biography
Gillian Mears grew up in the northern New South Wales towns of Grafton and Lismore. Acclaim came early, with her short-story collections and novels winning major prizes. Her books include Ride a Cock Horse, Fineflour, The Mint Lawn, The Grass Sister and A Map of the Gardens. More recently she has been living in the Adelaide Hills, where she wrote Foal's Bread.

Charlotte Wood - Animal People (Allen & Unwin)

Synopsis
'He could not find one single more word to say. I just want to be free. He could not say those words. They had already withered in his mind, turned to dust. He did not even know, he marvelled now, what the hell those words had meant.'

Acclaimed novelist Charlotte Wood takes a character from her bestselling book The Children and turns her unflinching gaze on him and his world in her extraordinary novel, Animal People. Set in Sydney over a single day, Animal People traces a watershed day in the life of Stephen, aimless, unhappy, unfulfilled - and without a clue as to how to make his life better.

His dead-end job, his demanding family, his oppressive feelings for Fiona and the pitiless city itself ... the great weight of it all threatens to come crashing down on him. The day will bring untold surprises and disasters, but will also show him - perhaps too late - that only love can set him free.

Sharply observed, hilarious, tender and heartbreaking, Animal People is a portrait of urban life, a meditation on the conflicted nature of human-animal relationships, and a masterpiece of storytelling. Filled with shocks of recognition and revelation, it shows a writer of great depth and compassion at work.

Biography
Charlotte Wood's first novel, Pieces of a Girl, was published in 1999, and won the 1998 Jim Hamilton Award for an unpublished manuscript. Both this and her second novel, The Submerged Cathedral (2004), were highly praised by reviewers and award judges, and the latter was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award and the 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, SE Asia/Sth Pacific. Her third novel, The Children, received rave reviews and was a bestseller, selling over 10,000 copies in trade paperback. She lives in Sydney.

Amy T Matthews - End of the Night Girl (Wakefield Press)

Synopsis
Molly, a young waitress, becomes obsessed with the Holocaust after seeing the photograph of a murdered Jewish girl not dissimilar to her in age. Unwillingly, and yet unable to stop, Molly writes the story of the girl in the photograph, giving her a name, a family, and a husband and consequently gives an immediacy to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Haunted by the murdered girl, Molly has no control over the imaginative process. She feels guilty about feeling unhappy about her own life when she is faced with the events of the holocaust, and also feels guilty that she is writing a story that is not her own. This is the creative act of writing laid bare. The two novels, each a compelling page-turner, combine teasingly in one as End of the Night Girl explores the shadow cast by the Holocaust across decades, continents and cultures.

Molly, a young waitress, becomes obsessed with the Holocaust after seeing the photograph of a murdered Jewish girl not dissimilar to her in age. Unwillingly, and yet unable to stop, Molly writes the story of the girl in the photograph, giving her a name, a family, and a husband and consequently gives an immediacy to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Haunted by the murdered girl, Molly has no control over the imaginative process. She feels guilty about feeling unhappy about her own life when she is faced with the events of the holocaust, and also feels guilty that she is writing a story that is not her own. This is the creative act of writing laid bare. The two novels, each a compelling page-turner, combine teasingly in one as explores the shadow cast by the Holocaust across decades, continents and cultures.

Biography
Amy T. Matthews has published short stories in collections including Best Australian Stories, and has been long-listed for the Australian/Vogel literary award. She lives in Adelaide with her husband and children, and teaches at the University of Adelaide.

- Winner of the 2010 Adelaide Festival Award for Best Unpublished Manuscript.

- Combines a deceptive "chick-lit" feel with serious literary themes.

- Major national publicity campaign, with associated writers festival appearances.

Favel Parrett - Past the Shallows (Hachette Australia)

Synopsis
Hauntingly beautiful and told with an elegant simplicity, this is the story of two brothers growing up in a fractured family on the wild Tasmanian coast. The consequences of their parents' choices shape their lives and ultimately bring tragedy to them all.

Harry and Miles live with their father, an abalone fisherman, on the south-east coast of Tasmania. With their mum dead, they are left to look after themselves. When Miles isn't helping out on the boat they explore the coast and Miles and his older brother, Joe, love to surf. Harry is afraid of the water.

Everyday their dad battles the unpredictable ocean to make a living. He is a hard man, a bitter drinker who harbours a devastating secret that is destroying him. Unlike Joe, Harry and Miles are too young to leave home and so are forced to live under the dark cloud of their father's mood, trying to stay as invisible as possible whenever he is home. Harry, the youngest, is the most vulnerable and it seems he bears the brunt of his father's anger.

Biography
Favel Parrett is a Victorian writer who loves to surf in the Southern Ocean. She was a recipient of an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship in 2009 and has had a number of short stories published in journals including Island and Wet Ink. Favel is currently working on her second novel. She has a passion for travel, especially to Africa and Bhutan, and in her spare time she volunteers at an animal rescue shelter.

Leah Swann - Bearings (Affirm Press)

Synopsis
Are we slaves to destiny or architects of our own fate? Bearings is about challenging the course of our lives as well as keeping a foothold during unpredictable times.

In this affecting novella and collection of stories, Leah Swann burrows deep into the souls of her characters to reveal universal complexities, frailties and strengths. From searching for love to coping with grief, Bearings provides a map of the human condition, deftly drawn by an exciting new Australian talent with a sharp eye for instinctive behaviours and emotional truths.

Biography
Leah Swann lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children. She has worked as a public relations manager, journalist and speechwriter. Bearings is her first book.