New releases for the week of 6 November 2010

When Colts Ran by Roger McDonald

Blurb: In this sweeping epic of friendship, toil, hope and failed promise, multi-award-winning author Roger McDonald follows the story of Kingsley Colts as he chases the ghost of himself through the decades, and in and out of the lives and affections of the citizens of The Isabel, a slice of Australia scattered with prospectors, artists, no-hopers and visionaries. Against this spacious backdrop of sheep stations, timeless landscapes and the Five Alls pub, men play out their fates, conduct their rivalries and hope for the best. Major Dunc Buckler, misplaced genius and authentic ratbag, scours the country for machinery in a World War that will never find him. Wayne Hovell, slave to moral duty, carries the physical and emotional scars of Coltss early rebellion, but also finds himself the keeper of his redemption. Normie Powell, son of a rugby-playing minister, finds his own mysticism as a naturalist, while warm-hearted stock dealer Alan Hooke longs for understanding in a house full of women. They are men shaped by the obligations and expectations of a previous generation, all striving to define themselves in their own language, on their own terms. When Colts Ran, written in Roger McDonalds rich and piercingly observant style, in turns humorous and hard-bitten, charts the ebb and flow of human fortune, and our fraught desire to leave an indelible mark on society and those closest to us. It shows how loyalties shape us in the most unexpected ways. It is the story of how men strike at beauty as they fall to the earth.

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Hand me Down World by Lloyd Jones

Blurb: A woman washes up on a beach in Sicily. She has come from Tunisia to find her son, taken from her when he was just days old and stolen away to Berlin. With nothing but her maids uniform and a homemade knife stashed in a plastic bag, she relies on strangers ' some generous, some malevolent ' to guide her passage north. These strangers tell of their encounters with her, building her story in fragments of memory, prejudice and sentiment into a moving work of sacrifice and love.'Hand Me Down World tells an epic story about the courage of a mother, the versions of truth to which we accommodate our lives, and loves ultimate power to redeem us.

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Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld

Blurb: The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker powers.'Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship'Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the'Leviathans peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory. Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face whats ahead.

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A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French

Blurb: Everyone hates the perfect family. So youll love the Battles. Mo is about to hit the big 50, and some uncomfortable truths are becoming quite apparent: She doesnt understand either of her teenage kids, which as a child psychologist, is fairly embarrassing. She has become entirely grey. Inside, and out. Her face has surrendered and is frightening children. Dora is about to hit the big 18 and about to hit anyone who annoys her, especially her precocious younger brother Peter who has a chronic Oscar Wilde fixation. Then theres Dad whos just, well, dad. A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the story of a modern family all living in their own separate bubbles lurching towards meltdown. It is for anyone who has ever shared a home with that weird group of strangers we call relations. Oh and theres a dog. Called Poo.

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Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyn Li

The second collection of stories from Yiyun Li, author of the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants. The stories in this collection, like the stories in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, are mostly set in China. The country portrayed here is the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to new situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby apartment building witnessing in awe the real estate boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specializing in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicize an alleged affair of her father. Underneath the veneer of prosperity and opportunity, however, lie the struggles of characters trying to reorient themselves in the unfamiliar landscapes of modern China: a widower, reminiscing about his wife, confronts a young unmarried woman purchasing condoms in a pharmacy; a new wife makes a plea to have a baby with her husband who was to be executed only to discover that she has become an instant celebrity; a middle-aged couple in America, who, upon losing their only daughter, return to their hometown in China to hire a young woman as a surrogate mother. These characters fates are affected as much by the historical moments in which they reside as by the choices they make. Yiyun Lis new collection of stories is a report from the frontline of a changing world, and confirms Li to be an unmissable writer.

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Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie

Blurb: On a beautiful starry night in the city of Kahani in the land of Alifbay a terrible thing happened: twelve-year-old Lukas storyteller father, Rashid, fell suddenly and inexplicably into a sleep so deep that nothing and no one could rouse him. To save him from slipping away entirely, Luka must embark on a journey through the Magic World, encountering a slew of phantasmagorical obstacles along the way, to steal the Fire of Life, a seemingly impossible and exceedingly dangerous task. With Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie proved that he is one of the best contemporary writers of fables, and it proved to be one of his most popular books with readers of all ages. While Haroun was written as a gift for his first son, Luka and the Fire of Life, the story of Harouns younger brother, is a gift for his second son on his twelfth birthday. Lyrical, rich with word-play, and with the narrative tension of the classic quest stories, this is Salman Rushdie at his very best.

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True Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies

Blurb: This is the story of a woman brave enough to risk it all. She understands better than most the things that we keep hidden. She comes to learn how the heart is usually stronger than the head. And she cannot help, despite her better instincts, being drawn into a sexually charged and highly volatile relationship. True Things About Me is a brilliantly written novel of survival that reveals simultaneously the strength and vulnerability of one ordinary woman. With great honesty and unexpected humour, Deborah Kay Davies takes us deep into the mind of her unforgettable protagonist and in doing so asks us to consider seriously what we might sacrifice for our desires.

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Elliot Allagash by Simon Rich

Blurb: Seymour Herson is the least popular student at Glendale, a private school in Manhattan. He's painfully shy, physically inept, and his new nick-name, 'chunk style,' is in danger of entering common usage. But Seymour's solitary existence comes to a swift end when he meets the new transfer student: Elliot Allagash, evil heir of America's largest fortune.'Elliot's rampant delinquency has already gotten him expelled from dozens of prep schools around the country. But despite his best efforts, he can't get himself thrown out of Glendale; his father has simply donated too much money. Bitter and bored, Elliot decides to amuse himself by taking up a challenging and expensive new hobby: transforming Seymour into the most popular student in the school.'An unlikely friendship develops between the two loners as Elliot introduces Seymour to new concepts, like power, sabotage, and vengeance. With Elliot as his diabolical strategist and investor, Seymour scores a spot on the basketball team, becomes class president, and ruthlessly destroys his enemies. Yet despite'the glow of newfound popularity, Seymour feels increasingly uneasy with Elliot's wily designs. For an Allagash victory is dishonorable at its best, and ruinous at its worst.

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Started Early, Took my Dog by Kate Atkinson

Blurb: Tracy Waterhouse leads a quiet, ordered life as a retired police detective-a life that takes a surprising turn when she encounters Kelly Cross, a habitual offender, dragging a young child through town. Both appear miserable and better off without each other-or so decides Tracy, in a snap decision that surprises herself as much as Kelly. Suddenly burdened with a small child, Tracy soon learns her parental inexperience is actually the least of her problems, as much larger ones loom for her and her young charge.'Meanwhile, Jackson Brodie, the beloved detective of novels such as'Case Histories, is embarking on a different sort of rescue-that of an abused dog. Dog in tow, Jackson is about to learn, along with Tracy, that no good deed goes unpunished.

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Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin

Blurb: Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael Mouse Tolliver, a gardener happily ensconced with his much-younger husband.'Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couples backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of fifty-seven, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.

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Falling Home by Karen White

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The Ice Cradle by Mary Ann Winkowski and Maureen Foley

Blurb: February 1907, Block Island. Residents of this tiny Rhode Island community awaken to a scene of tragedy: During a midnight blizzard, a New York'bound steamer carrying 157 passengers has been destroyed at sea. Volunteers rush to the beach to organize a search-and-rescue effort'but for most of the passengers, hope is already lost. 'A century later, residents of the island are busy preparing for the summer season and debating the merits of a proposed wind farm near the beach. No one expects that those long-forgotten passengers may have something to say about the project, but the restless spirits are furious that their final resting place may be disturbed'and turn to Anza to help them protect it. If spirit-world preservationists aren't enough, Anza also has to face the uncomfortable possibility that her five-year-old son, Henry, has inherited her gift. And then there's that handsome fisherman whose charms are proving difficult to ignore.

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The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Blurb: Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.
Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable waythe Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirdsa secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.'In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girls struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someoneespecially yourselfyou fight for it.

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Three Quarters Dead by Richard Peck

Blurb: Kerry is chosen by the coolest clique in school and so she thinks life has finally begun. But then it seems all over when her three friends are killed in a shocking car accident. Or are they? Only weeks after the accident, Kerry receives a text from one of the girls:'Were all 3 here at my aunts in the city. Take the 3:50 train. B there.

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Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle

Blurb: Coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi has grown very fond of Alfred Glockner, the part-time comic and genuinely jolly charity Santa whos been using her Village Blend as a place to warm his mittens. When she finds him brutally gunned down in a nearby alley, a few subtle clues convince her that Alfreds death was something more than the tragic result of a random muggingthe conclusion of the police. With Clares boyfriend, NYPD Detective Mike Quinn, distracted by a cold case of his own, and ex-husband Matt investigating this years holiday lingerie catalogs (an annual event), Clare charges ahead solo to solve her beloved Santas slaying. Then someone tries to ice Clare, and she really gets steamed. But shed better watch out, because if she fails to stop this stone cold killer, she may just get the biggest chill of her life.

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An Uplifting Murder by Elaine Viets

Blurb: On Josies latest assignment, her former teacher-now working in a lingerie shop-is in need of some serious support when a customer is found murdered. Unfortunately, the teachers alibi is flimsier than the camisoles she sells, so Josie will need to bust out her sleuthing skills to expose the real killer

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