One man's phenomenal tale of escaping a death sentence in Iraq, surviving the Australian Refugee system and becoming a pioneering surgeon at the forefront of Orthopaedic medicine.In 1999, Munjed Al Muderis was a young surgical resident working in Baghdad when a squad of Military Police marched into the operating theatre and ordered the surgical team to mutilate the ears of three busloads of army deserters. When the head of surgery refused, he was executed in front ...

Munjed's new book is once more a journey, but this time in taking him across the world on a quest to save others rather than himself.In Munjed Al Muderis's bestselling memoir Walking Free, he described his experience as a refugee fleeing Saddam Hussein's Iraq, his terrifying sea journey to Australia and the brutal mandatory detention he faced in the remote north of Western Australia. The book also detailed his early work as a pioneering orthopaedic surgeon...

Spellbinding and heartbreaking, the true story told by Kooshyar Karimi in Leila's Secret shows us everyday life for women in a country where it can be a crime to fall in love.Born in a slum to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, Kooshyar Karimi has transformed himself into a successful doctor, an award-winning writer, and an adoring father. His could be a comfortable life but his conscience won't permit it: he is incapable of turning away the unmarried wo...

A raw, rough, poetic, funny, intensely moving and quite, quite beautiful memoir about a boy from the bush, growing up in Australian in the sixties.From one of Australia's favourite actors comes a classic memoir of an Australian childhood in the sixties.Young Steve was a larrikin, happy-go-lucky, resilient kid, coming of age in a simpler time. Growing up on a farm cut from virgin scrub at the end of a lake, a farm called Stillways, Steve daydreamed about cars and escape. His...

An extraordinary story of escaping Vietnam to create a happier life in Australia.In 1978, following a dramatic escape from war torn Vietnam, Tracy Vo's parents boarded a leaky boat not knowing what their future held or whether they would live. The couple had fled Vietnam under the cover of darkness, exchanged wedding rings en route to Malaysia, then sold them and their scant possessions to feed themselves and their 10 relatives on the journey. They were declared re...

The charming story of a young city nurse who found love in the outback.Thea Hayes trained as a Nurse in Sydney in 1959. A year later she was catapulted out of the safety of her city life into the unknown world of the Outback.Thea knew nothing of the place she was soon to call home, Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory, the second largest property in the world under one management. It covered four million acres!With nervous excitement, Thea ac...

Belinda Neil lived and breathed her high–octane job. She relished her roles as a homicide investigator and hostage negotiator with the NSW police force, but she never knew what her work day might bring. She could be investigating brutal murders such as the De Gruchy killings or , in her negotiator role, persuading the murderous and suicidal to drop their weapons., stop terrorising their families, step back from the ledge.It was hardly surprising that over time the horrors she saw b...

It looked bleak and predictable for little Keelen Mailman: an alcoholic mother, absent father, the horrors of regular sexual and physical assault and the casual racism of a small outback town in the sixties. But somehow, despite the pain and deprivation, the lost education, she managed to absorb her mother's lessons: her Bidjara language and culture, her obligations to Country, and her loyalty to her family.So it was no surprise to some that a girl who could hide for a year in her ...

'Mary's book is a reminder that we don't have to be alone with grief. Her heartbreak and inspiring story is a lesson to all of us on how to live life to the fullest even in our most difficult moments. I loved it.' Naomi WattsStarting with a colourful childhood in Collingwood and Doncaster, under the shadow of her father's mortality, and ending in sunny Bondi, supported by a tight circle of girlfriends who got her through a death even more painful, Mary Coustas takes us on a journey...

This is the true story of two twenty-year old Australians who travelled for fourteen months on recumbent bicycles from Russia, across Siberia and Mongolia, to Beijing. It is as much a story of perseverance, passion, and belief as it is about the people and remarkable landscapes of Siberia and Mongolia. Tim and Chris are not just fearless adventurers but philosophers on wheels, willing and able to open themselves up to everything from the voice of the Steppes to the Russian villagers and th...

"[Bowen's] remarkable journey transforming Chinese orphanages . . . is a testament to the power of perseverance." —Larry Brilliant, TED Prize-winnerAfter reading an article about the thousands of baby girls languishing in Chinese orphanages, Jenny Bowen and her husband adopted a little girl from China and brought her home to Los Angeles, not out of a need to build a family but rather a commitment to save one child. A year later, as she watched her new daughter play...

'Don't write crap. Can't be that hard. And when you have written complete crap, then I think you should correct it.' Julia GillardWhen Julia Gillard took the reins of the Australian Labor Party on 24 June 2010 she did so with the goodwill of the majority of her party and a fawning Canberra press gallery. The man she had supplanted, Kevin Rudd, led an isolated band of angry Labor voices at this surprising turn of events. The collective political and media verdict was that his time, ...