Random House Australia: 1821 books

'Australia is a lucky country, run mainly by second-rate people who share its luck.' First published in 1964 The Lucky Country caused a sensation. The book was a wake-up call to an unimaginative nation, an indictment of a country mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past. Popular...

WE THINK OF HUMAN LIFE AS PRICELESS, BUT THERE ARE MEN AMONG US WHO WILL END A LIFE FOR A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS. These men are the hit men, striking a contract with someone who has a target - and the cash.� The Hit Men tells the stories of some of Australia's most ruthless contract killers -...

What if the love of your life forgot who you were? When outback midwife Ava May meets Zac on a flight to Alice Springs, they tumble into a whirlwind affair. But an exciting adventure leads to a terrible accident, with shattering consequences. The couple who had so much going for them now find...

The long-awaited life story of John Williamson: an Australian icon, a much-loved legend of the music industry and man of the land.� The joy after all is in the journey, or being what you really wanna be . . .� The son of a wheat farmer, John Williamson grew up with an appreciation of the land...

'I want you to come back to Kings Canyon . . . If you see it again, the memories of what happened might return.' When Sara Blake takes up a position as governess on Redhill Station in Central Australia, she isn't expecting to encounter a family in crisis, or to uncover a tragedy of her own. With...

Forty years after independence, Papua New Guinea is the largest single recipient of aid from Australia. Yet Australians seem to be largely ambivalent about the country. Few Australians know the history of our colonial rule in PNG and our long ties to the country are quickly being forgotten. PNG expert...

Huge floodwaters have engulfed a remote Victorian goldfield, reducing the prospect of digging up a fortune from very slim to impossible, and adding disease to the many possibilities of sudden death in harsh conditions. As sickness starts to take its toll and calls mount for the rescue of diggers stranded...

Each year the Emerging Writers' Festival brings writers, editors, publishers, literary performers and readers together for a festival that is fast becoming an essential part of Australia's literary calendar. In 2012, they launched the Monash University Undergraduate Prize for Creative Writing, a prestigious...

Certain Admissions is Australian true crime at its best, and stranger than any crime fiction. It is real-life police procedural, courtroom drama, family saga, investigative journalism, social history, archival treasure hunt - a meditation, too, on how the past shapes the present, and the present the...

In Journey of a Thousand Storms Kooshyar Karimi, author of Leila's Secret, tells his gripping personal story of surviving prison in Iran and life as a refugee before finding success in Australia. Kooshyar Karimi had two careers in Iran, one as a doctor and one as an award-winning translator....

How should one reply to an invitation - or behave at a Hindu wedding, or select an appropriate anniversary gift, or write a letter of condolence, or eat tricky foods like artichokes?The Penguin Book of Etiquette is the definitive guide to modern manners in Australia. Entertaining and witty, it guides...

'His heart was in the land and he thought of nothing else.' At the close of the First World War, and after surviving a gas attack on the Western Front, Captain Walter Eddison moved his family from war-ravaged Britain to start a new life in Australia. The Eddisons were offered 'land fit for heroes'...

Kerry Packer described her as a 'dedicated and brilliant journalist who has achieved greatness in her industry very early and so quickly' and 'a jewel beyond price'. Cold Chisel wrote a song about her. Rupert Murdoch was so impressed by her talents, he asked her to be the editor-in-chief of both the...

In Darwin in 1942, Gunner's barking alerted an entire army base of impending air raids, well before the enemy planes appeared on radar. Following an ambush, Sarbi the explosive detection dog was held captive by the Taliban for over a year, before heading home a hero. And when 135000 horses left Australia...