MIFF Film Rights Catalogue 2015 by Curtis Brown Australia

Curtis Brown Australia MIFF 2015

Fiction

2 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

368 pp |

March 2015

HIS OTHER HOUSE Sarah Armstrong Does love always mean telling the truth? Published by: Pan Macmillan | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson (pippa@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: He was dismayed how readily he took to lying. He'd always thought of it as a decisive abandonment of the truth. Instead, he realised, it was simply a matter of one word slipping into the place of another.' Dr Quinn Davidson and his wife Marianna have endured years of unsuccessful IVF and several miscarriages, and Quinn can't face another painful attempt to conceive. Marianna is desperate to be a mother and their marriage is feeling the strain. At a small-town practice a few hours from their home, Quinn meets Rachel, the daughter of one of his patients. Drawn to each other, it's not long before they find themselves in a passionate affair and Quinn realises he must choose between the two women. Then Marianna announces a surprise natural conception, news that will change the course of all their lives. Set in the lush Australian subtropics, this taut emotional drama poses questions about moral courage and accountability, and asks whether love means always telling the truth. Praise for His Other House: ‘As Armstrong unleashes a tour de force, inevitably, the children suffer the most. Set against subtropical Australian sun, corrugated roof, lush green and sugar cane, this savage reminder of family history repeating, of secrets and of loss, is not depressing, but surfaces with vigour and a new day always ready to dawn..’ Australian Women’s Weekly In her twenties Sarah Armstrong was an award-winning radio journalist and television researcher at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Her first novel, Salt Rain (Allen & Unwin), was shortlisted for several awards including the 2005 Miles Franklin. Sarah lives in the coastal subtropics of New South Wales with her partner and young daughter.

3 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

80,000 words approx |

May 2016

AFTERGLOW Kate Forster A legendary beauty scion dies, her last wishes leaving her warring family in turmoil and secrets are unearthed that could destroy everything; even lives. Published by: Harlequin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: The cosmetics giants, Le Marche, are a

family are bound, and torn apart by secrets—but the truth, just like the moon, eventually comes to light, and what maybe revealed could tear the family and company apart? Daphné Le Marche is the dying matriarch. Her only surviving son Robert has already promised the company to a corporate raider, and her two granddaughters, are as far away from the business as could be. Celeste is a French socialite, living in Paris sleeping with a famous politician and trying to avoid her depression and any responsibility. Sibylla is a scientist in Melbourne, living a careful life, avoiding her passions and her past, but the past has a way of finding a way back until you’ve dealt with the pain. Sexy, glamorous, and fun, Afterglow, story of a two cousins, Sibylla and Celeste who are left a legacy, for better or for worse. A family saga that takes the reader from the Paris in the 1950’s, to the present day. From the boardrooms of London, to the bedrooms of Paris, from the elite boarding schools in Switzerland, to the Melbourne laneways, Afterglow takes us through the story of Daphné, Sibylla and Celeste and how to keep a legacy alive through heartbreak, scandal and the importance of keeping it in all the family.

Kate Forster lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, two children and two dogs, and can be found nursing a laptop, surrounded by magazines and watching trash TV or French films. Kate is the author of the adult novels; The Perfect Location, The Perfect Retreat, Seduction, Picture Perfect and Close Up. She has also written five young adult romance books including; Unlucky Break, Head over High Heels, Beauty and the Beat, Piece of Cake and Twice Upon a Time.

4 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

90,000 words approx |

July 2016

ALL THESE PERFECT STRANGERS Aoife Clifford The international psychological suspense debut already making waves. Published by: Simon & Schuster | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV via Jerry Kalajian Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: You don’t have to believe in ghosts for the dead to haunt you. You don’t have to be a murderer to be guilty. Within six months of Pen Sheppard starting university three of her new friends are dead. Only Pen knows the reason why. College life had seemed like a wonderland of sex, drugs and maybe even love. The perfect place to run away from your past and reinvent yourself. But you never can run far enough and when friendships are betrayed, Pen’s secrets are revealed. The consequences are deadly. Aoife Clifford has won the two major Australian crime writing prizes in short story form, the Ned Kelly-S.D. Harvey Short Story Award and the Scarlet Stiletto among other short story prizes. She has been shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger. In 2013 she was awarded an Australian Society of Author’s mentorship for her first novel All These Perfect Strangers. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and three children.

5 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

304 pp |

May 2014

THE STRAYS Emily Bitto An engrossing story of ambition, sacrifice and compromised loyalties from an exciting new talent. Published by: Affirm Press | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV via Jerry Kalajian Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends one of the daughters of infamous avantgarde painter Evan Trentham. He and his wife are trying to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930s Australia by inviting other like-minded artists to live and work at their family home. Lily becomes infatuated with this wild, makeshift family and longs to truly be a part of it. As the years pass, Lily observes the way the lives of these artists come to reflect the same themes as their art: Faustian bargains and spectacular falls from grace. Yet it’s not Evan, but his own daughters, who pay the price for his radicalism.

~ Winner of the Stella Prize 2015~

‘With a skilful use of perspective and memory, and a dual adult–child point of view, Bitto reaches far beyond the well-documented narratives and myths of the Heide players to widen and enrich the notion of the artist as mad or bad or eccentric.’ —Kristina Olsson, Readings Monthly ‘Another favourite this year was The Strays, Emily Bitto's hugely impressive first novel. The long central section, a meditation on family and friendship set in the 1930s Melbourne art scene, is magical. Bitto creates a world so densely imagined that it seems not just real but part of the reader's own past – and she does it in lovely prose.’ Michelle De Kretser, Sydney Morning Herald

Emily Bitto lives in Melbourne. She has a Masters in literary studies and a PhD in creative writing from the University of Melbourne, where she also teaches. Her prose and poetry have appeared in various publications, including Meanjin, Heat, Harvest, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Literary Review. The Strays, was shortlisted for the prestigious Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript.

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Fiction

528 pp

October 2014

HELLO FROM THE GILLESPIES Monica McInerney For more than thirty years Angela Gillespie has sent to friends and family around the world an end-of-year letter that has always been cheery and full of good news. This year, she tells the truth…

Published by: Penguin Australia|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: The Gillespies are far from the perfect family that Angela has made them out to be. Her husband seems to be having a mid-life crisis. Her grown-up twins are having career meltdowns. Her third daughter, badly in debt, can't stop crying. And her ten-year-old son spends more time talking to his imaginary friend than to real ones. Without Angela, the family would fall apart. But when Angela is taken from them in a most unexpected manner, the Gillespies pull together – and pull themselves together – in wonderfully surprising ways . . . Praise for Hello from the Gillespies: 'This is one of those rare books you could recommend to anyone and know that they will love it.' - Australian Women's Weekly Monica McInerney grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia, where her father was the railway stationmaster. She is the author of the bestselling novels A Taste for It, Upside Down Inside Out, Spin the Bottle, The Alphabet Sisters, Family Baggage and a collection of short fiction, All Together Now, published internationally and in translation. In 2006 she was the ambassador for the Australian Government initiative Books Alive, with her novella Odd One Out. Her novel, Those Faraday Girls, won the General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards and All Together Now was short-listed in the same category in the 2009 Australian Book Industry Awards. At Home with the Templetons was a huge success in 2010 and was followed by a sequel to The Alphabet Sisters entitled Lola’s Secret. Her latest book Hello from the Gillespies was published by Penguin in 2014. She currently lives in Dublin with her Irish husband.

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Fiction

352 pp

September 2014

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS Kylie Ladd Four mothers. Four teenage daughters. An isolated tropical paradise with no internet or mobile phone reception. What could possibly go wrong?

Published by: Allen & Unwin|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson (pippa@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: How can we let our daughters go to forge lives of their own when what we most want to do is hold them close and never let them go? How do we let them grow and keep them protected from the dark things in the world at the same time? And how can mothers and daughters navigate the troubled, stormy waters of adolescence without hurting themselves and each other? A clear-eyed, insightful and wildly entertaining look into the complicated, emotional world of mothers and daughters by the acclaimed author of Into My Arms, Last Summer and After the Fall. Praise for Mothers and Daughters: '...a strong, intelligent, subtle and wise new voice...being compared with Christos Tsiolkas, Malcolm Knox and Helen Garner....' - Booktopia Kylie Ladd is a novelist, neuropsychologist and freelance writer. Her essays and articles have appeared in The Age, Griffith Review, O Magazine, Kill Your Darlings, The Hoopla and MamaMia among others. Kylie’s first novel, After The Fall, was published in Australia, Turkey and the US, while her second, Last Summer, was highly commended in the 2011 FAW Christina Stead Award for fiction. She also co-edited Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity. Into My Arms, was selected as one of the Get Reading ‘50 Books You Can’t Put Down’. Kylie’s fourth novel, Mothers and Daughters, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2014.

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| Fiction | 288 pp | November 2015 |

GOOD MONEY J.M GREEN Set in the bustling, multicultural inner west of Melbourne, Good Money heralds an exciting new voice in Australian crime fiction.

Publisher: Scribe Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Stella’s phone rings. A young African boy, the son of one of her clients, has been murdered in a dingy back alley. Stella, in her forties and running low on empathy, heads into the night to comfort the grieving mother. But when she gets there, she makes a discovery that has the potential to uncover something terrible from her past — something she thought she’d gotten away with. Then Stella’s neighbour Tania mysteriously vanishes. When Stella learns that Tania is the heir to a billion-dollar mining empire, Stella realises her glamorous young friend might have had more up her sleeve than just a perfectly toned arm. Who is behind her disappearance? Enlisting the help of her friend, Senior Constable Phuong Nguyen, Stella’s investigation draws her further and further into a dark world of drug dealers, sociopaths, and killers, such as the enigmatic Mr Funsail, whose name makes even hardened criminals run for cover. One thing is clear: Stella needs to find answers fast — before the people she’s looking for find her instead. Set in the bustling, multicultural inner-west of Melbourne, Good Money reveals a daring and exciting new voice in Australian crime fiction. J. M. Green is the author of Good Money, the first crime-noir novel featuring social worker Stella Hardy. It was shortlisted in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. J. M. Green studied professional writing at RMIT. Her work has appeared in Overland and received an honourable mention in the Sisters in Crime Scarlett Stiletto Short Story competition. She divides her time between writing in her backyard studio and working as a librarian in Melbourne’s western suburbs. 9 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

272 pp

August 2015

SIX DEGREES Honey Brown The power of attraction connects us all.

Published by: Jane Curry Publishing|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: Weaving an intricate web of interconnected characters and their six stories, Six Degrees explores the powerful role sexual attraction plays in everyday life. Written by Honey Brown, best selling author of several critically acclaimed novels, Six Degrees is Honey’s first exploit into rural romance. Strong female protagonists lead a cast of characters with lives we recognize and know, crossing paths in intimate, surprising and erotic ways. The ripple effect of one tragic event shapes each character’s experiences, but in the end it is their individual need for connection that truly binds them. Six Degrees uses the allure, the action or the absence of physical connection to explore these everyday character’s flaws, quirks and strengths. For the first time, Honey has made sexual attraction the intriguing hero of each story.

Honey Brown lives in country Victoria with her husband and two children. She is the author of Red Queen, The Good Daughter, After the Darkness, Dark Horse, and Through the Cracks. Red Queen was published to critical acclaim in 2009 and won an Aurealis Award, and The Good Daughter was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award in 2011. After the Darkness was selected for the Women’s Weekly Great Read and for Get Reading 2012’s 50 Books You Can’t Put Down campaign.

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Fiction

272 pp

August 2015

THE BIT IN BETWEEN Claire Varley Writing a love story is a lot easier than living one.

Published by: Pan Macmillan|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Grace Heifetz (grace@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: There are seven billion people in the world. This is the story of two of them. After an unfortunate incident in an airport lounge involving an immovable customs officer, a full jar of sundried tomatoes and the capricious hand of fate, Oliver meets Alison. In spite of this less than romantic start, Oliver falls in love with her. Immediately. Inexplicably. Irrevocably. With no other place to be, Alison follows Oliver to the Solomon Islands where he is planning to write his much-anticipated second novel. But as Oliver's story begins to take shape, odd things start to happen and he senses there may be more hinging on his novel than the burden of expectation. As he gets deeper into the manuscript and Alison moves further away from him, Oliver finds himself clinging to a narrative that may not end with 'happily ever after'. Claire Varley grew up on the Bellarine Peninsula and lives in Melbourne. She has sold blueberries, worked in a haunted cinema, won an encouragement award for being terrible at telemarketing, taught English in rural China, and coordinated community development projects in remote Solomon Islands. Her short stories and poems have appeared in Australian Love Stories ('A Greek Tragedy'), Australian Love Poems ('Beatitude'), Seizure online ('Poll', 'Hallow'), page seventeen ('Once', 'Hamlet, Remus and Two Guys Named Steve'), Sotto ('in the name of') and [Untitled] ('The Nicholas Name', 'Behind Tram Lines'). The Bit In Between is her first novel.

11 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

320 pp |

November 2015

A TATTOED HEART Deborah Challinor The best-selling Convict Girls series: Four unlikely women, one enduring friendshipâ&#x20AC;Ś

Published by: Random House Australia | Paperback Rights available: World excl. ANZ; Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: 1832: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke have been serving their sentences in Sydney Town for three years. For much of that time they have lived in fear of sinister and formidable Bella Jackson, who continues to blackmail them for a terrible crime. Each of them has begun to make a life for herself, but when Harrie's adopted child Charlotte is abducted and taken to Newcastle, the girls must risk their very freedom to save her. But is Friday up to the task? Will her desperate battle with her own vices drive her to fail not only herself, but those she loves and all who love her? In this final volume of a saga about four convict girls transported halfway around the world, friends and family reunite but cherished loved ones are lost, and an utterly shocking secret is revealed.

Also available in the Convict Girls series:

Praise for Deborah Challinor: 'Challinor is a good storyteller; her characters have depth and her historical backdrops are well researched, seamlessly joining fact and fiction and creating a convincing, atmospheric yarn' Bookseller + Publisher â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Seamlessly fuses historical fact and engrossing fiction' Queensland Times Deborah Challinor has a PhD in history and is the author of nine bestselling novels. Her latest series, Convict Girls, begins with Behind the Sun, Girl of Shadows, and The Silk Thief. These four novels are set in 1830s Sydney, and is inspired by her ancestors - one of whom was a member of the First Fleet and another who was transported on the Floating Brothel. She lives in New Zealand with her husband. 12 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

480 pp |

April 2015

SECRET KEEPING FOR BEGINNERS Maggie Alderson Is it ever better to tell?

Published by: Harper Collins |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Even the closest families have secrets ... it's when they are shared that things begin to change. The lives of three very different sisters collide in this witty new novel from bestseller Maggie Alderson. Recently divorced Rachel is juggling her new dream job in interior design PR with the demands of two young daughters. She's full of creative ideas but - even with a colourful childminder or two - some days she can't make it into the office on time and in matching shoes. Tessa, a talented muralist, is feeling flat. Her kids are growing up and she's feeling upstaged by her husband's new-found celebrity as the host of a reality TV fireplace restoration show. Everything turns on its head when she gets a surprise from her past. Youngest sister Natasha leads a glamorous jet setting life - she's one of Vogue's favourite make-up artists who regularly creates the looks for the biggest shows in Paris and Milan. Single and childless, she's been focused on her career - but when the lie she's concealed for years threatens to come to light, the truth will make her question everything. Meanwhile their mother, Joy, a hippy vegetarian caterer, is carefully ignoring the letters that keep arriving at her door... And everything lurking beneath the surface of this seemingly happy family is about to come out...

Maggie Alderson is the author of seven novels and four collections of her columns from Good Weekend magazine. Her children's book Evangeline, The Wish Keeper's Helper was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she worked as a journalist and columnist in the UK and Australia, editing several magazines, including British ELLE. She writes 'The Rules' style column for the Sunday Age and a blog at maggiealderson.com.

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Fiction |

512 pages | August 2015

THE BEAST’S GARDEN Kate Forsyth A retelling of the Grimms’ Beauty and the Beast, set in Nazi Germany. Publisher: Random House Australia |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: The Grimm Brothers published a beautiful version of the Beauty & the Beast tale called ‘The Singing, Springing Lark' in 1819. It combines the well-known story of a daughter who marries a beast in order to save her father with another key fairy tale motif, the search for the lost bridegroom. In ‘The Singing, Springing Lark,' the daughter grows to love her beast but unwittingly betrays him and he is turned into a dove. She follows the trail of blood and white feathers he leaves behind him for seven years, and, when she loses the trail, seeks help from the sun, the moon, and the four winds. Eventually she battles an evil enchantress and saves her husband, breaking the enchantment and turning him back into a man. Kate Forsyth retells this German fairy tale as an historical novel set in Berlin during the Third Reich. A young woman marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but fears her new husband and the regime for which he works. Ava becomes involved with an underground resistance movement in Berlin called the Red Orchestra, made up of artists, writers, diplomats and journalists, who pass on intelligence to the American embassy, distribute leaflets encouraging opposition to Hitler, and help people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country. The Beast's Garden is a compelling and beautiful love story, filled with drama, intrigue, and heartbreak, taking place between 1938 and 1945 in Berlin. Praise for Kate Forsyth: 'Kate Forsyth is a storyteller whose books are spun out of magic and folklore. In all her stories there are princesses and wild forests, imagined terrors and real darkness, escapes to be made and arms to fall into. She is the ultimate giver of dreams, taking a fairytale and turning it around to provide even more possibilities.' Readings Kate Forsyth is the bestselling and award-winning author of more than twenty books, ranging from picture books to poetry to novels for both children and adults. Since The Witches of Eileanan was named a Best First Novel of 1998 by Locus Magazine, Kate has won or been nominated for numerous awards, including a CYBIL Award in the US. She’s also the only author to win five Aurealis awards in a single year, for her Chain of Charms series – beginning with The Gypsy Crown – which tells of the adventures of two Romany children in the time of the English Civil War. Book 5 of the series, The Lightning Bolt, was also a CBCA Notable Book. Kate’s books have been published in 14 countries around the world, including the UK, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. She is currently undertaking a doctorate in fairytale retellings at the University of Technology, Sydney, having already completed a BA in Literature and a MA in Creative Writing. 14 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction |

336 pp | July 2015

LAST DAY IN THE DYNAMITE FACTORY Annah Faulkner Vivid and stylish domestic drama.

Publisher: Picador |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV via Jerry Kalajian Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Last Day In The Dynamite Factory takes a middle-class couple in their forties and blows up their comfortable lives when a funeral sparks revelations of the past. Chris, a successful architect, has everything going for him - a beautiful Queensland home (even if you can see the toilet when you walk in the door), an accomplished wife, two great children ... and an annoying little voice on his shoulder telling him there's more to life. And so, he discovers, there is ... Last Day In The Dynamite Factory is surprising, sparkling, entertaining fiction from the distinctive older writer with an excellent pedigree who brought us The Beloved, shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, winner of the Qld Premier's Prize for an unpublished manuscript, commended in the FAW Christina Stead Award and winner of the Nita B Kibble Award. Praise for Annah Faulkner: 'Vivid and stylish domestic drama, enlivened by a strong gift for metaphor and the wisdom to use it sparingly.' Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age 'I love Annah's writing for its sharp, insightful characterisations, and wise take on relationships. I expect we will be hearing a lot more from Annah Faulkner in years to come.' Alex Craig, publisher, Picador Annah Faulkner lives on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. She is the author of The Beloved and Last Day in the Dynamite Factory.

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Fiction |

336 pp |

November 2014

MERCILESS GODS Christos Tsiolkas Love, sex, death, family, friendship, betrayal, tenderness, brutality, sacrifice and revelation ... Published by: Allen & Unwin |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: This incendiary collection of stories from acclaimed writer Christos Tsiolkas, bestselling author of The Slap and Barracuda, takes you deep into worlds both strange and familiar, and introduces you to characters who will never let you go and situations that will haunt you forever. Praise for Christos Tsiolkas: '... one of our most important novelists.' Age 'Tsiolkas has become that rarest kind of writer in Australia, a serious literary writer who is also unputdownable, a mesmerising master of how to tell a story. He has this ability more than any other writer in the country ...' Peter Craven, Sun-Herald 'One of the most astute chroniclers and critics of our age and culture, Tsiolkas is a passionate, poetic, political polemicist, but his critiques take the form of enthralling stories that are peopled with characters that bounce off the page.' Adelaide Advertiser 'Tsiolkas is a hard-edged, powerful writer ... leaves us exhausted but gasping with admiration.' Washington Post Christos Tsiolkas is the author of five novels: Loaded, which was made into the feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man and Dead Europe, which won the 2006 Age Fiction Prize and the 2006 Melbourne Best Writing Award. He won Overall Best Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, was shortlisted for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize and won the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for his novel, The Slap, which was also announced as the 2009 Australian Booksellers Association and Australian Book Industry Awards Books of the Year. He is also a playwright, essayist and screen writer. He lives in Melbourne. Christos' latest novel is Barracuda, which was published here and in the UK to rave reviews in late 2013 and became an instant bestseller.

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Fiction

304 pp |

March 2015

GUILT Matt Nable A powerful novel about the hope of childhood and the disappointment of adulthood. Published by: Penguin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson (pippa@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description:

Guilt starts off with a group of friends getting ready for an eighteenth birthday party. Life is exciting and the world is at their feet. Jump forward twenty years and they are all struggling with where they are at. Tommy has just got out of prison. Lani, the girl he loved at school, is unhappily married to a cheating husband. Another friend, Julia, has only just moved out of home to live with her fiancé. And Paul – the high school hero of whom everyone expected great things – is living a totally ordinary life of marriage, mortgage, kids. Where did it all go wrong? Something happened at that party that changed their lives forever. This agonising novel examines the layers of loyalty and jealousy, the headiness of youth, and the inescapable taste of guilt. Praise for Faces in the Clouds: 'Nable vividly brings to life the issues that families must face when confronted with disability . . . Faces in the Clouds is a very satisfying book.' Mark Rubbo, Readings 'Echoes of Tim Winton's Breath and of the coming-of-age narratives of Peter Goldsworthy.' Australian Book Review Matt Nable is a writer and actor. He wrote and starred in The Final Winter (2007), an independent Australian film that has since been released internationally, and has also appeared in Riddick alongside Vin Diesel, East West 101, Underbelly: Badness and Brothers in Arms: Bikie Wars. More recently he has starred in Winter and Gallipoli and has also secured a major role in the hit US series, Arrow. With his wife and three children, Matt divides his time between Sydney and Los Angeles. He is the author of the novels We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2009) and Faces in the Clouds (2011). Guilt is his third novel.

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Fiction

344 pp |

August 2015

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF HENRY HOFFMAN John Tesarsch From the author of the highly acclaimed The Philanthropist comes a new novel of assured elegance. Published by: Affirm Press | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: The Last Will and Testament of Henry Hoffman follows three brilliant and unconventional siblings, whose lives are upended when their reclusive German father, Henry, shoots himself. After the funeral his eldest daughter, Eleanor, finds a will in which he has left his entire estate to a woman she has never heard of. Hiding it from her brother and sister, Eleanor sets out to solve this mystery and uncover the confronting truth about her father’s past. Henry, though, is not the only Hoffman with secrets. In the months that follow, as his children fall out over their inheritance, they learn things about each other they could never have imagined. Ranging from rural Victoria to America and war-torn Europe, John Tesarsch’s second novel is an affecting tale of love, loss and survival. It explores subjects that affect us all: family conflict, guilt and redemption, and how trauma resonates across generations. Praise for The Philanthropist: “A pitch-perfect exploration of Australia’s great and good” The Australian ‘A fine piece of work.” John Banville John Tesarsch was born and raised in Melbourne. He has degrees in law and musicology, and has worked as a barrister and a solicitor. For some years he lived in Vienna, where he pursued a career as a musician before he turned to writing. After travelling widely he returned to Melbourne, where he now lives with his wife and two young children. His debut novel, The Philanthropist, was published in 2010.

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Fiction

304 pp |

September 2016

MINE GAMES Richard Beasley The first in a series of Petter Tanner thrillers. Published by: Simon & Schuster | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description:

Petter Tanner left the flash world of commercial law following the death of his wife from cancer. Now, as a criminal defence barrister, he crosses paths with some of the less desirable but wealthy members of Sydney’s underbelly. One evening he receives a call from Melissa Cheung. Her husband Joe Cheung, a dear friend from law school, a partner at global law firm, BBK, has been arrested whilst on business in China on grounds of corruption. The call takes him away from drug dealers and crooked property developers into the highest end corporate corruption – mining companies trying to cover up environmental disasters; the Hendrichs family – at the top of Sydney’s rich list who think they are above the law. Petter knows Cheung is not corrupt but has been set up to save the skin of his firm and one of its biggest clients – one of the many companies connected to the Hendrichs family. Petter is like a dog with a bone as he pursues those that had Cheung incarcerated he unearths cover up after cover up putting his own and others’ lives in danger he will not let up until he finds the perpetrator/s and has them brought to justice. This is an engaging novel confronting big contemporary issues - exposing the rich and how the law best serves them – their excess and the waste of lives of those in their wake as well as money, mining and environmental degradation – and how individuals get caught up in it. In the vein of Scott Turow’s novels and Michael Connolly’s legal thrillers Beasley’s characters have internal lives and are interesting beyond the narrative. Richard Beasley is a lawyer. Born in Sydney, he grew up in Adelaide before heading east again after the last bizarre mass murder he could tolerate. He lives in Randwick, Sydney, at the back of the racecourse, which he considers to be the centre of the universe. His fourth novel Mine Games will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2016.

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Fiction |

400 pp | April 2015

THE CHOCOLATE PROMISE Josephine Moon From the author of the international bestseller The Tea Chest.

Publisher: Allen & Unwin |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (Fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: It all began on Christmas Livingstone’s thirty-ninth birthday. It was then that she did the thing she scorned. She made a wish. And it was as though a ripple went out into the universe and changed her future because the next thing she knew, Emily was handing her papers that opened to doorway to the thing she wanted but was too scared to look for. Christmas’ life is good. In her enchantingly seductive shop, The Chocolate Apothecary, she tempers and creates handmade pieces; her friends and family surround her and her secret life of wish-granting brings joy to herself and others. She doesn’t need a handsome botanist ace who knows everything about cacao to walk into her life needing her help to write a book on her passion, chocolate. She doesn’t really need any of that at all. Or does she? Set across Tasmania, Paris, and Provence, this is a glorious novel of a creative woman about to find out how far in life as list of rules will take her, with an enticing tangle of freshly picked herbs, pots of flowers, and delicious chocolate scenting the background. Praise for The Tea Chest: ‘What a gloriously wonderful read. I loved it.’ Cathy Kelly ‘A perfect blend of sweet and spice.’ Jenny Colgan

Josephine Moon writes about strong creative women making their mark on the world. She describes her stories as ‘books like brownies’, indulgent, comforting, a treat for the senses but filling and with chunky nuts to chew on. She lives with her husband and son in Queensland, where they are renovating a house for profit to maintain her passion for horses and imported fine chocolate.

20 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult

21 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult |

432 pp | September 2012

THE COLOURS OF MADELEINE series Jaclyn Moriarty They are worlds apart â&#x20AC;&#x201C; until a crack opens up between them; a corner of white - the slim seam of a letter. Publisher: Pan Macmillan |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: She knew this. That philematology is the science of kissing. That Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known as Mark Twain. That, originally, gold comes from the stars. Madeleine Tully lives in Cambridge, England, the World - a city of spires, Isaac Newton and Auntie's Tea Shop. Elliot Baranski lives in Bonfire, the Farms, the Kingdom of Cello - where seasons roam, the Butterfly Child sleeps in a glass jar, and bells warn of attacks from dangerous Colours. Elliot begins to write to Madeleine, the Girl-in-the-World - a most dangerous thing to do for suspected cracks must be reported and closed. But Elliot's father has disappeared and Madeleine's mother is sick. Can a stranger from another world help to unravel the mysteries in your own? Can Madeleine and Elliot find the missing pieces of themselves before it is too late? A mesmerising story of two worlds; the cracks between them, the science that binds them and the colours that infuse them.

Also available in THE COLOURS OF MADELEINE series: THE CRACKS IN THE KINGDOM

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 2014|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au)

THE CRACKS IN THE KINGDOM

Publisher: Due to be published by Pan Macmillan in 2016|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au)

22 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult |

288 pp | August 2015

RISK Fleur Ferris When Taylor and Sierra cross the path of an online predator they are thrown into a dark world they didn't know existed. Can Taylor find Sierra's abductor in time, or should she be looking for a killer?

Publisher: Random House Australia |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Best friends Taylor and Sierra meet a hot guy in a chat room online. Both fall for Jacob's charms, but as usual, the more outgoing and vivacious Sierra overshadows Taylor and wins his attention. Taylor's devastated – Sierra already kissed Callum, Taylor's secret crush, over the summer holidays. Life's not fair, especially when Sierra's around. Moving quickly, Sierra sets up a date with Jacob on Friday after school. She asks Taylor and their friends to cover for her. Even though she's upset, Taylor is still Sierra's best friend and agrees to help. But Sierra abuses the favour and calls to say she's going to spend the night with her date. She doesn't come home all weekend, doesn't answer her phone and nobody's heard from her . . . Taylor is torn. She doesn't want to betray Sierra by telling her parents but at the same time she's concerned for her welfare. Finally, Callum convinces her to tell. The police are called and their worst fears are confirmed when Sierra's body is found miles from Melbourne a week later . . . Devastated, Taylor becomes obsessed with finding Sierra's killer. As clues emerge, Taylor races against time to try and save the predator's next victim. Fleur Ferris spent the first seventeen years of her life growing up on a farm in Patchewollock, North West Victoria. She then moved twenty times in twenty years. During this time, Fleur sometimes saw the darker side to life whilst working for Police and Ambulance Services. She now lives a more settled lifestyle on a rice farm in Southern New South Wales, with her husband and three young children. Fleur’s colourful and diverse background has given her unique insight into today’s society and an endless pool of experiences to draw from. When she isn’t weaving this through young adult fiction, reading or spending time with her family, you will find her with friends, talking about art, books and travel. 23 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult |

432 pp | September 2012

THE TRIBE: THE INTERROGATION OF ASHALA WOLF Ambelin Kwaymullina Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf? Publisher: Walker Books |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: “There will come a day when a thousand Illegals descend on your detention centres. Boomers will breach the walls. Skychangers will send lightning to strike you all down from above, and Rumblers will open the earth to swallow you up from below ... And when that day comes, Justin Connor, think of me.” Ashala Wolf has been captured by Chief Administrator Neville Rose. A man who is intent on destroying Ashala’s Tribe - the runaway Illegals hiding in the Firstwood. Injured and vulnerable and with her Sleepwalker ability blocked, Ashala is forced to succumb to the machine that will pull secrets from her mind. And right beside her is Justin Connor, her betrayer, watching her every move. Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf? Also available in THE TRIBE series: THE DISSAPEARANCE OF EMBER CROW

Publisher: Walker Books 2013|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au)

THE FORETELLING OF GEORGIE SPIER

Publisher: Due to be published by Walker Books in August 2016|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) 24 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult

424 pp |

February 2014

AFTERWORLD Lynette Lounsbury Hugely compelling, original adventure-fantasy, full of fast-paced action and intriguing ideas, from a brilliant debut Australian author.

Published by: Allen & Unwin |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Dominic Mathers is about to discover that the end of his life is just the beginning... Dom is the youngest person ever to arrive in the Necropolis, the 'waiting place' between death and what comes after. And it isn't long before he catches the attention of Satarial, a cruel Nephilim from the beginning of time, who has grim plans to use Dom as entertainment in his vicious gladiatorial games. When Dom's still-living sister, Kaide, appears in the Necropolis too, Satarial has the leverage he needs, and the stage is set for the biggest shake-up the afterlife has seen in centuries. Dom's only option is to compete in the Trials and attempt to win the chance to enter the Maze. In his favour he has an enigmatic young Guide, Eva, and a Guardian, Eduardo, who may not be what he seems. But will they be enough? Growing up in Papua New Guinea gave Lynnette Lounsbury an appreciation of the mythical and the dangerous. Her earliest memories are filled with earthquakes, the smell of sulfur and stories about magic. She couldn't decide whether to be a writer, an archaeologist or a fighter so she lectures in creative writing and ancient history and teaches Taekwondo. She has explored her passion for storytelling through travel articles, bridal magazine editorials and short stories and she is editor of the youth travel website Ytraveler.com. Every year Lynnette volunteers in the South Pacific for an Ausaid program that gives Islanders the chance to study writing and drama. But perhaps her greatest adventure is closer to home â&#x20AC;&#x201C; managing life with a husband who makes films and two boys who make trouble. They provide the inspiration and exasperation needed to get words onto paper.

25 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult

280 pp |

August 2015 |

THE CUT OUT Jack Heath The explosive, mind-bending new series from Jack Heath, acclaimed author of The Lab.

Publisher: Allen & Unwin Rights available: Film/TV via Jerry Kalajian Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Fero is an ordinary teenager, struggling to fit in at his new school -- until he is chased down and arrested. Apparently he bears an eerie resemblance to Troy Maschenov, a ruthless young spy from a neighbouring nation. When Fero proves his identity to the police, his problems only get worse. He is recruited by the Library, a secret intelligence organisation. They need him to impersonate Troy Maschenov long enough to sneak across the border and rescue a librarian who's stuck behind enemy lines. Hastily trained and loaded up with gadgetry, Fero has no choice but to accept the mission. The future of his country is on the line... The Cut Out is a fast-paced roller coaster for boys aged ten and up. It poses, too, a vital question about the consequences of endless warfare: can we be held responsible for the crimes of our ancestors? Also available THE SCREAM SERIES:

SCREAM: THE HUMAN FLYTRAP

Publisher: Scholastic 2015|Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Josh lives in Axe Falls - a town of mysterious disappearances, terrifying visions and unusual events. When his family moves to a spooky, run-down old ruin - and he meets a strange neighbour telling him to GET OUT - Josh thinks his life is weird enough. But when his best friend's science experiment goes horribly wrong and he finds himself running for his life, Josh starts to wonder... What is really going on in Axe Falls? And will anyone survive long enough to find out?

26 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Young Adult

60,000 words |

February 2016

YELLOW Megan Jacobson Being fourteen can be murder. Published by: Penguin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Fourteen-year-old Kirra is doing it tough. Her dad has left, her mum is an alcoholic, her 'friends' bully her and now a teenage ghost is speaking to her through a broken phone booth. Kirra and the ghost make a pact: she'll prove who murdered him almost twenty years ago if he agrees to make her popular, get her parents back together, and doesn't haunt her. Things aren't so simple, however, and Kirra realises that people can be haunted in more ways than one. Yellow is a young adult murder mystery with supernatural elements, but at heart it's a coming of age tale about the redemptive power of kindness. Megan writes in a moving and realistic way about what it’s like for a 14-year-old child, from a single parent family, to try and handle a parent suffering from addiction – to avoid DOCS and the shame and frustration of dealing with it alone. Not only that but she adeptly captures what it’s like to be a 14-year-old girl at school – the bitchiness, the desire to be liked, and how affecting that can be. Megan Jacobson grew up in Darwin and the far north coast of NSW but now lives in Sydney where she works in TV news production at the ABC. She has a degree in journalism and has worked as a question writer for TV game shows and as an in-house script story-liner and script editor for several Australian television dramas. Her short stories have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, aired on ABC radio, and appeared in the UTS Writers Anthology. Yellow is her first novel.

27 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Middle Grade

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| Middle Grade | 208pp | May 2015 |

THE MONEY TREE Tiffiny Hall Imagine living in a world where money really DOES grow on trees! But only Maxine knows …

Publisher: HarperCollins Rights available: Audio Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Twelve-year-old Maxine Edwards comes from a family that overflows with love, but isn't blessed with a lot of money. They have just moved to a new area, in an affluent neighbourhood, but the house they rent is mysteriously cheap. Maxine and her sister Fleur don’t have the cool things the other kids at their new school take for granted, and they are embarrassed about their run-down house. When Maxine finds a fifty-dollar note between the gaping floorboards in her bedroom, she can't believe it. As more and more money continues to poke through the cracks in her bedroom floor she discovers a real life money tree sprouting ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred dollar bills from its thick, lucrative branches. Maxine thinks money will solve all her problems. Finally she will be rich, popular and cool! But as the money tree grows, greed also flourishes. As it becomes harder to hide the secret from her parents Maxine realises being rich doesn't equate to happiness especially not for a family whose currency is love. When still at school, Tiffiny Hall won the John Marsden Award for creative writing. She is the author of the Roxy Ran children’s fiction series with HarperCollins Publishers, including White Ninja, Red Samurai and Black Warrior. Tiffiny has a Bachelor of Arts/Media and Communications and Diploma of Modern Languages (French) from the University of Melbourne, Certificate III & IV in Fitness and a Diploma of Sport (coaching) with a specialization in martial arts. Tiffiny is a 5th Dan black belt in Taekwondo with over 25 years of training and more than 15 National titles. She worked as a journalist before writing her first health book, How to create the Ultimate Body. This was followed by Weightloss Warrior, Fatloss for Good – the secret weapon and her Lighten Up cookbook (Hardie Grant). Tiffiny is a trainer on TV’s The Biggest Loser and continues to be a positive media role-model for health and fitness.

29 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Middle Grade

344 pp |

August 2015

TRULY TAN Jen Storer Meet Tan. She's funny. She's lively. She has the mind of a great detective ... Published by: HarperCollins | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Dear Diary It's official. Our whole family has moved to the country. The pets are disturbed and restless. My sisters are disturbed and restless - although that's normal. What is not normal is a cursed fox and a haunted clubhouse. That is definitely unnormal. At least the country people now have an expert in their midst. Someone with a cool head and a sharp eye. Someone who can solve intriguing mysteries and knows how to keep detailed Secret Spy Files. Really, it's lucky I came along when I did. Also in the series:

Jen Storer is a talented and exciting writer for children. Her fantasy novel Tensy Farlow and the Home for Mislaid Children was shortlisted for a string of awards, including the Prime Minister's Literary Awards (Best Children's Fiction) and the 2011 CBCA, Book of the Year. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Jen worked in the publishing industry as an editor, a project manager and in creative development. Jen has a studio at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. 30 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Middle Grade

288 pp |

August 2012

PHYLLIS WONG AND THE FORGOTTEN SECRETS OF MR OKYTO

Geoffrey McSkimming

A junior Jonathan Creek-style mystery with the clever and resourceful young magician, Phyllis Wong. Published by: Allen & Unwin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Conjuring is in Phyllis Wong's veins. It was passed down from her great-grandfather who, before his mysterious disappearance, was one of the world's most brilliant and successful magicians. Now Phyllis lives in what was his grand old home, converted into a number of apartments, in the middle of the city with her father and her loyal dog Daisy. When a series of incomprehensible robberies takes place in the city, Phyllis realises there is much more to the crimes than meets the eye. It may be baffling her friend Chief Inspector Inglis, but Phyllis is determined to find out more. Who is this thief? What does he want? And how is he achieving the impossible? Also in the series:

Geoffrey McSkimming is the author of the bestselling Cairo Jim chronicles and Jocelyn Osgood jaunts, and a book of verse, Ogre in a Toga and Other Perverse Verses. In addition to the Cairo Jim series and Ogre in a Toga, Geoffrey McSkimming has contributed to magazines and poetry anthologies and also narrates the award-winning Cairo Jim Chronicles audio books for Bolinda Publishing. Geoffrey's Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood books are published around the world including UK, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia and Hungary. 31 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Middle grade

17,000 words |

February 2015

CAPTAIN JIMMY COOK DISCOVERS THE THIRD GRADE Kate and Jol Temple, illustrated by Jon Foye Jimmy Cook is an oddly confident third grader who mistakenly thinks he’s a world famous explorer – he sets his sights on the south pacific but the only way to get there is winning a competition on the back of a cereal box. Published by: Allen & Unwin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Jimmy is an overly confident 7-year-old boy who mistakenly thinks he's a world famous explorer. But try telling him that. He’s got some pretty crazy ideas about the world and not everyone shares them. Not his teacher, not his mum, and certainly not his nemesis, the class perfectionist and world’s most annoying Taylor Swift fan. When Jimmy sets his sights on an expedition to Hawaii, where the real Captain Cook met his demise, things get out of hand. If he’s going to make his dream happen he’s going to have to jelly wrestle a hysterical TV star, take on a ball-pit full of mean kids with an antique prosthetic limb and dodge an outbreak of constipation.

Kate and Jol Temple have written three children’s books including, Parrot Carrot, I Got This Hat and Mike I Don’t Like. These books they have found themselves on short lists and NSW Premier’s Reading Lists. They have also created two digital adaptions of their picture books which have received international awards for creativity. Captain Jimmy Cook Discovers the Third Grade is their first work of Junior Fiction. When they are not writing silly stuff for kids they like to hang out with their two young sons and play Fan Tan. Jon Foye likes drawing funny looking characters with deranged little toothy-pegs. He has illustrated three picture books including Parrot Carrot, I Got This Hat and Mike I Don’t Like, all in collaboration with authors Kate and Jol Temple. His work has been recognized by Australian Book Design Awards and brought to life in animation in awarded digital companions. He lives in Sydney with his wife, young son and a slightly overweight dog named Gerry. 32 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fiction

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Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s picture book |

32 pp | September 2015

OLLIE AND THE WIND Ronojoy Ghosh Publisher: Random House |Hardback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Grace Heifetz (grace@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Sometimes the best things appear out of thin air The wind blows all day on Ollie's island. There aren't many people around, but there's lots of space to play. One day the wind steals Ollie's hat. Then it darts away with his scarf. But is the wind just naughty, or is it trying to tell Ollie something?

Ronojoy Ghosh has lived in India, Indonesia, Singapore and New Zealand, and currently lives in Sydney with his wife and young son. He wrote Ollie and the Wind for his son, who refuses to sleep until he hears a story every night.

34 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Non-fiction

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| Memoir | 432 pp | August 2015 |

WOMEN I’VE UNDRESSED Orry-Kelly The fabulous life and times of a legendary Hollywood designer and a genuine Australian original. Publisher: Random House | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV (feature only) Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Orry-Kelly created magic on screen, from Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon to Some Like it Hot. He won three Oscars for costume design. He dressed all the biggest stars, from Bette Davis to Marilyn Monroe. He was an Australian. Yet few know who Orry-Kelly really was – until now. Discovered in a pillowcase, Orry-Kelly’s long-lost memoirs reveal a wildly talented and cheeky rascal who lived a big life, on and off the set. From his childhood in Kiama to revelling in Sydney’s underworld nightlife as a naïve young artist and chasing his dreams of acting in New York, his early life is a wild and exciting ride. Sharing digs in New York with another aspiring actor, Cary Grant, and partying hard in between auditions, he ekes out a living painting murals for speakeasies before graduating to designing stage sets and costumes. When The Kid from Kiama finally arrives in Hollywood, it’s clear his adventures have only just begun. Fearless, funny and outspoken, Orry-Kelly lived life to the full. In Women I’ve Undressed, he shares a wickedly delicious slice of it. Orry-Kelly was born Orry George Kelly in Kiama in 1897. His love of theatre and nightlife flourished when he moved to Sydney at 17. In 1922 the aspiring actor and artist moved to New York, where he painted murals for nightclubs and graduated to designing stage sets and costumes. This led to Hollywood and a job as chief costume designer at Warner Brothers. Orry-Kelly went on to create some of the most iconic looks in film history, including Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, in a career spanning 30 years and 295 films. He won Oscars for Some Like it Hot, Les Girls and An American in Paris.

36 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Biography |

384 pp |

May 2015

THEA ASTLEY: INVENTING HER OWN WEATHER Karen Lamb Finally, the first biography of one of Australia’s most beloved novelists. Published by: University of Queensland Press | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (Fiona@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own Weather is the long-overdue biography of Australian author Thea Astley (1925–2004). Over a fifty-year writing career, Astley published more than a dozen novels and short story collections, including The Acolyte, The Slow Natives and, finally, Drylands in 1999. She was the first person to win multiple Miles Franklin awards – four in total. With many of her works published internationally, Astley was a trailblazer for women writers. In her personal life, she was renowned for her dry wit, eccentricity and compassion. Although a loving mother and wife, she rose above the domestic limitations imposed on women at the time to carve out a professional life true to her creative drive. Karen Lamb has drawn on an unparalleled range of interviews and correspondence to create a detailed picture of Thea the woman, as well as Astley the writer. She has sought to understand Astley’s private world and how that shaped the distinctive body of work that is Thea Astley’s literary legacy. Karen Lamb teaches literature and communication at the Australian Catholic University and has held teaching and research positions at the University of Queensland, Monash University and the University of Melbourne, where she taught in literary studies, media and communication, and cultural studies. Her research interests include Australian literature, life writing, and the cultural context of authorship. She has edited a book of Australian short stories, and published book chapters and articles on Australian authors, including a book on Peter Carey. She lives in Sydney.

37 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Non-fiction

288 pp

October 2014

THE WIFE DROUGHT Annabel Crabb “A riveting, original take on why both men and women are missing out when it comes to work and family life.” Leigh Sales

Published by: Random House Australia |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis (fiona@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: The Wife Drought is about women, men, family and work. Written in Annabel Crabb's inimitable style, it's full of candid and funny stories from the author's work in and around politics and the media, historical nuggets about the role of ‘The Wife' in Australia, and intriguing research about the attitudes that pulse beneath the surface of egalitarian Australia. Crabb's call is for a ceasefire in the gender wars. Rather than a shout of rage, The Wife Drought is the thoughtful, engaging catalyst for a conversation that's long overdue. ‘Crabb perfectly encapsulates just how much inequality exists between working men and women in terms of employment, salary and career success.’ - WeekendNotes Annabel Crabb is one of Australia's most popular political commentators, a Walkleyawarded writer, and the host of Australia's first dedicated political cooking show, ABC TV's Kitchen Cabinet. She writes for ABC Online's The Drum and has worked extensively in TV and radio. She is a columnist for the Sunday Age, Sun-Herald and Canberra's Sunday Times, and has worked as a political correspondent and sketchwriter for titles including the Advertiser, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, and as London correspondent for Fairfax's Sunday papers. She won a Walkley Award for her 2009 essay on Malcolm Turnbull, and was Australia's 2011 Eisenhower Fellow. She lives in Sydney with her partner, Jeremy, and their three children.

38 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Non-fiction | 320 pp |

July 2015

CERTAIN ADMISSIONS Gideon Haigh A beach a body and a lifetime of secrets Published by: Penguin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV via Jerry Kalajian Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: 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 past. On a warm evening in December 1949, two young people met by chance under the clocks at Flinders Street railway station. They decided to have a night on the town. The next morning, one of them, twenty-year-old typist Beth Williams, was found dead on Albert Park Beach. When police arrested the other, Australia was transfixed: twenty-four-year-old John Bryan Kerr was a son of the establishment, a suave and handsome commercial radio star educated at Scotch College, and Harold Holt's next-door neighbour in Toorak. Police said he had confessed. Kerr denied it steadfastly. There were three dramatic trials attended by enormous crowds, a relentless public campaign proclaiming his innocence involving the first editorials against capital punishment in Australia. For more than a decade Kerr was a Pentridge celebrity, a poster boy for rehabilitation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a fame that burdened him the rest of his life. Then, shortly after his death, another man confessed to having murdered Williams. But could he be believed? Also by Gideon Haigh:

ON TRUMPER Publisher: Penguin|Paperback Rights held: Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au) On Trumper is Gideon Haighâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s illuminating and entertaining book about one of cricket's greatest batsmen, the Australian Victor Trumper (1877-1915). Gideon Haigh, arguably our country's finest sports writer, offers a book for the general reader based on five wide-ranging essays, much like his successful and award-winning Penguin title On Warne. Key to this experience are the accompanying, ground-breaking photos of Trumper by Englishman George Beldam (1868-1937), a leading early photographer of sports 'stars'. From a moneyed background, himself an excellent cricketer, Beldam was among the first to produce and popularise 'action photographs' (a term he coined). His photos of Trumper encapsulated the Golden Age of cricket and, Gideon argues, of Australian life generally. Gideon explores the relationship between Trumper, the photographs, the game, the country and its people. 39 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Memoir | 304 pp |

March 2015

LEILA’S SECRET Kooshyar Karimi In fundamentalist Iran, new life sometimes means certain death.

Published by: Penguin | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson (pippa@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: 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 women who beg him to save their lives by ending the pregnancies that, if discovered, would see them stoned to death. One of those women is 22-year-old Leila. Beautiful, intelligent, passionate, she yearns to go to university but her strictly traditional family forbids it. Returning home from the library one day – among the few trips she's allowed out of the house – she meets a handsome shopkeeper, and her fate is sealed. Kooshyar has rescued countless women, but Leila seeks his help for a different reason, one that will haunt him for years afterwards and inspire an impossible quest from faraway Australia. Spellbinding and heartbreaking. Leila's Secret shows us everyday life for women in a country where it can be a crime to fall in love. But for all its tragedy, this unforgettable book is paradoxically uplifting, told from the heart of Kooshyar's immense sympathy, in the hope that each of us – and the stories we tell – can make a difference. Praise for Leila’s Secret: 'Leila's Secret brims with compassion and yearning and eloquently shares the story of a regime suffocating its people and losing all that was great about it. To read this book is to see inside a culture and understand the desperation of its people.' The Hoopla 'A riveting account of one girl's innocent spirit defying the tyranny of Iran's crushing regime. It is a masterpiece of moral impossibilities and climactic suspense.' Bob Brown Kooshyar Karimi was born in Tehran and now lives in Sydney. He is the author of several books on Iranian, Chinese and Assyrian myths and history, one of which was banned from publication by the Iranian government. His memoir I Confess: Revelations in Exile was published in Australia in 2012. He is also an award-winning translator of Gore Vidal, Kahlil Gibran and Adrian Berry, among others. 40 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Memoir

76,000 words | March 2016

ENEMY Ruth Clare What happens when the war comes home.

Publisher: Penguin |Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Grace Heifetz (grace@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: I was born into the war still raging inside my father. The DNA he gave me came pre-charged with trauma he didn’t know how to process, and as my life unfolded it seemed I was fated to follow in his footsteps. I too learned life should be lived on guard because you never know when the next attack would come. One day, after he had left our family for good, Mum said to me, “I wish you had known your father before he went to Vietnam.” I wish I had, too. Enemy is a powerful memoir that explores the impact of War, PTSD, alcoholism and trauma on the next generation.

Ruth Clare did a degree in biochemistry/ journalism before deciding to live her dream of becoming an actor. She landed roles on Neighbours, Blue Heelers, as well as many commercials, but gave it all up to become a professional writer in 2004. She has written for magazines, created a range of educational materials as well as worked as a copywriter for a wide range of business clients. Ruth was a finalist in the 2014 Cowley Literary Award for an abridged excerpt from Enemy.

41 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Fiction

384 pp |

October 2014

HIGH STAKES: THE RISE OF THE WATERHOUSE DYNASTY Paul Kennedy Scandal, glamour, success – the story of Australia’s bestknown horseracing family

Published by: Hachette | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster (claref@curtisbrown.com.au)

Description: When it comes to racing, the name most Australians associate with the racetrack is Waterhouse. This is their compelling story. High Stakes tracks the story of the Waterhouse dynasty - from the early years of the colony to Bill Waterhouse's introduction to the bookmaking world as a sixteen-year-old, working as a 'penciller' (writing betting tickets) for his father in the late thirties. From that moment his future was clear. He went on to make money both on and off the track - and created headlines during the notorious Fine Cotton affair in the eighties. It examines Bill's son Robbie's rise as a respected bookie and a knowledgeable judge of horses, to his spectacular fall, as a result of that same Fine Cotton affair, which led to a life ban from involvement in the racing industry. Paul Kennedy is a senior television presenter with ABC 1, and has more than 20 years’ news reporting experience. He has covered some of the biggest stories in Australia for networks Ten, Nine and the ABC. A former state league footballer, his coverage of the issue of drugs in sport has been a career highlight: his short film Drug Game was a Melbourne International Film Festival finalist. He worked with Chrissie Foster to tell her acclaimed story of abuse by the Catholic Church, Hell on the Way to Heaven (Random House Australia). His investigative account Storm Cloud: Melbourne Storm’s Demise and Resurrection is published by Hardie Grant. High Stakes: The Rise Of The Waterhouse Dynasty was published by Hachette in 2014. Paul Kennedy is married with three sons.

42 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Non-fiction

304 pp

March 2007

FAT FORTY AND FIRED Nigel Marsh One man's frank, funny and inspiring account of losing his job and finding his life.

Published by: Random House | Paperback Rights available: Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne (tara@curtisbrown.com.au) Description: Nigel Marsh is a stressed, overweight

mortgage slave struggling to balance a high-pressured career, a marriage and the demands of four small children under eight. Then the unthinkable happened - he loses his job. After the initial shock (and some unpleasant surgery), Nigel decides to embrace life outside the office and spend a year taking stock. What follows is a candid and often hilarious account of how he attempts to master the art of hands-on parenting, lose 20 kilos, train for an ocean swimming race and come to terms with the growing realisation that he's an alcoholic. Along the way we discover what men (or this man) really think about sex in marriage, being good dads, work, love, football, family, religion, self-help books and sharks, just for starters. Fat, Forty and Fired is a rare gem, a highly entertaining, thought-provoking and inspiring memoir about falling off the hamster wheel and surviving.

Nigel Marsh, originally from England, has worked as a stand-up comedian and has written articles for the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and numerous advertising magazines. He lives in Clovelly with his wife, two sons and twin daughters. He is still enjoying life.

43 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au