Like the best true life adventures, the story of Werner Pelz is stranger than fiction. Forced to flee Nazi Germany for being Jewish, he was then interned in England for being German. Shipped to Australia on the notorious HMT Dunera, he spent two years in internment camps in Hay and Tatura. After returning to Britain, his life evolved into a spiritual quest that led him to become an Anglican vicar, to author popular books (including God Is No More), to frequently appear on the BBC, and to b...

‘Subtle and finely crafted. A novel of intellectual and emotional intensity.’ ~ Steven Carroll, author of The Time We Have Taken   In Keeping Faith the innocence and certainties of childhood are delicately tested against the realities of adult life. Josh and Gracie grow up in a working class world centred on the values of faith and family. Both cherish their father, a lay preacher, and their mother, but for Josh the complex s...

Michael and MajorieMadigan refuse to be interviewed by biographer Sinclair Hughes for his new book Inside the Lion's Den: The Literary Life of Gilbert Madigan. Thisis not surprising as Gilbert is Marjorie's ex- husband and Michael's mostlyabsent father.In Roger Averill'sbrilliantly conceived new novel, Relatively Famous, Gilbert Madigan is Australia's first Booker Prizewinner, a feted and much lauded author that the U.K. and U.S. now likes to calltheir own. Michae...

Two young Australians arrive unannounced on a remote Melanesian island and ask its residents if they can live with them for a year.Granted this request, cut off from the outside world, living without electricity, telephones, running water, two-way radios or even access to an ocean-going boat, Roger Averill and his anthropologist partner adapt to life in a subsistence culture and find themselves overwhelmed by the generosity of their hosts. Treacherous sea voyages, cyclones, a drug-...

Based on rich interview data drawn from a large scale longitudinal study of homeless young people, this book examines the personal, familial and structural factors that impact on homeless young people’s long-term outcomes. While telling the personal stories of young people’s experiences, the book refers to the wider research and policy literature on youth homelessness, engaging with key debates about the causes and meanings of homelessness in western societies. The book addresses important...