Penguin Books Australia

1539, Lisbon. The Inquisition displays its power and ruthlessly spreads fear. Heretics are tortured and burned. Any who oppose the Church's will realize that silence is preferable to a slow and agonizing death.

Isabela, daughter of the Falconer at the Royal Court, is about to be caught in the Church's terrifying schemes. The slaughter of two of the King's precious white falcons sees her father arrested...

From the beginning Jack and I was friends. Somehow our way of looking at things fitted together. 

He never called me Dolly, the way the others did, only my full and proper name.

Sarah Thornhill is the youngest child of William Thornhill, convict-turned-landowner on the Hawkesbury River. She grows up in the fine house her father is so proud of, a strong-willed young woman who's certain where her...

THE FUTURE IS HERE.
THE PAST IS YET TO COME.

THE WATERBOYS ARE GONNA GO OVER THE EDGE AGAIN.

The Waterboys is a fist-clenching, nail biting reimagining of Australian history: what is, what could have been, or what really was.  Conway inhabits and apocalyptic future in a continent caught up in a violent struggle for control of water.
Through cascading dreams, Conway travels back to where the civil...

Gin, the albino, marries to escape the confines of an asylum.  Toad, a little man who wears corsets, marries to prove his manhood.  Together they are freaks - feared and ridiculed by the remote farming community in which they live.  Into their lives come two Italian POWs bringing music, sensuality and a love that will fan the flames of small town bigotry.

In 1787 Lieutenant Thomas Rooke sets sail from Portsmouth with the First Fleet and its cargo of convicts, destined for New South Wales. As a young officer and a man of science, the shy and quiet Rooke is full of anticipation about the natural wonders he might discover in this strange land on the other side of the world.

A group of Jewish refugees are thrown together on board a dilapidated freighter charting a course for Australia. Fleeing terrible scenes of destruction in Europe, they are bound by a deep sense of loss and the uncertainty of their fate.

As the ship lists, inner conflicts burst to the surface and romance, revenge, guilt and desperation fill the craft. There's poignancy, drama and an abiding strength...

'A startling feat of the gothic imagination, made wholly convincing by lucid and controlled storytelling.'
AMANDA LOHREY

When Mary Ann, an impoverished governess, rescues a child from the Yarra River, she sets in motion a train of events that she could never have foreseen.  It is not a child she has saved but General Tom Thumb, star of a celebrated troupe of midgets on their 1870 tour of Australia...

Miss Emily 'Fido' Faithfull is a woman ahead of her times, running her own printing press in Victorian London. She is distracted from her work by the sudden return of her once-dear friend, the unhappily wed Helen Codrington. Before she knows it, Fido is swept up in the intimate details of Helen's failing marriage and obsessive affair with a young army officer.

'Combines the conflicting elements of Australia's black and white cultures in a uniquely authentic way ... An appealing and sensitive novel ... he has succeeded masterfully.' - Paul Ormonde ( Herald Sun )

This is a historical novel, based on the true story of a young English convict named William Buckley who, on Boxing Day 1803, escaped from Victoria's abortive first settlement at Sorrento and then...

From the incomparable Fern Michaels comes a timeless story of desire, ambition, and star-crossed love, stretching from the bustling streets of 19th century London to the untamed beauty of Australia.

The Roman Empire is in crisis, with threats coming from all directions. Ballista, Warrior of Rome, must once again embark on an epic journey - one with a secret mission.

Turmoil reigns across the entirety of the imperium . But the most worrying source of danger comes from the savage barbarian tribes, whose raids have become increasingly commonplace. Ballista undertakes his most treacherous journey...

'So this will happen. I will inherit Karen's son who I hate and love before I've even set eyes on him.'

In 1947 a sixteen-year-old German orphan, Stefan Landau, comes to England. A traumatized boy in a shabby Hitler Youth uniform, he is sent to live with his aunt, Elisabeth, and her family.

'So this will happen. I will inherit Karen's son who I hate and love before I've even set eyes on him.'
 
It is 1947. A sixteen-year-old German orphan, Stefan Landau, has come to live with his aunt's family in England. Elizabeth does not know what to make of her sister's son - this dirty, traumatized boy in his shabby Hitler Youth uniform.

THE DECAMERON GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

Set against the background of the Black Death of 1348, the hundred linked tales in Giovanni Boccaccio's undisputed masterpiece are peopled by nobles, knights, abbots, nuns, doctors, lawyers, philosophers, students, artists, tradesman, troubadours, peasants, pilgrims, servants, spendthrifts, thieves, parasites, gluttons, gamblers, police-and lovers, both faithful and...

'There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now . . . Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?'

'A small miracle of a book . . . of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power' Washington Post

In an act of breathtaking imagination, J.M. Coetzee readically reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe.

Early nineteenth century New Zealand – the great chief Te Rauparaha has conquered tiny Kapiti Island, from where Ngati Toa launches brutal attacks on its southern enemies. Off the coast of Kapiti, English trader John Stewart seeks to trade with Te Rauparaha, setting off a train of events that forever change the course of New Zealand history.