Ann Burton was born on a river bank the night her father tried to burn their house down. Six years later her sister Liza disappears while they are staying at their uncle's property. What Ann sees that day robs her of her memory and her speech. Ann escapes her anguished childhood, finding love and a new life away from Mallawindy. But there is no escape from the Burton family and its dark secrets. Ann must return to Mallawindy and confront the past if she is ever to be free.

In the 1990s, the Burtons are surviving as best they can, but Jack Burton continues to control his fractured family even in his absence. John has returned to Mallawindy unable to forgive his father and haunted by vengeful thoughts. Ann has three young sons and is soon to have another child, but still grieves for her firstborn daughter, Mandy. When the river disgorges what appears to be Jack's body, the family's tumultuous history is stirred up again. The eagerly awaited sequel to Mallawindy continues the story of how even those who escape the town have to fight to escape its dark legacy. 'At the heart of this absorbing tale...is the writer's ability to interweave the country-town propensity for rumour and allegation into a gothic narrative... Yesterday's Dust is lightened by its pinpoint descriptions of people and places, as well as the occasional touch of humour, some of it with a country flavour and some delightfully black'–AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER Is there such a thing as winter beach reading? If so, Joy Dettmans' Yesterday's Dust fits the bill nicely... an author who's well in tune with her subject and audience–WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

Paperback re-issue of novel about a young girl and her family's fight to stay together. Lori Smyth-Own is on the edge of adolescence but feels years older. She has eleven brothers, nine living at home, and the twins who live with Aunty Eva. At home there is never enough of anything, and Lori's mother, Mavis, is so overweight she can barely move. When tragedy strikes, the Smyth-Owen children take desperate measures to save themselves. By the author of 'Jacaranda Blue' and 'Yesterday's Dust'.

On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman – foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant – is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives. When no relatives come forth to claim the infant, Gertrude's daughter Amber – who has recently lost a son in childbirth – and her husband Norman take the child in. In the ensuing weeks, Norman becomes convinced that God has sent the baby to their door, and in an act of reckless compassion and lonely desperation, he names the baby Jennifer and registers her in place of his son. Loved by some but scorned by more, including her stepmother and sister, Jenny survives her childhood and grows into an exquisite and talented young woman. But who were her parents? Spanning two momentous decades and capturing rural Australia's complex and mysterious heart, Pearl in a Cage is the unputdownable new novel by one of our most talented storytellers.

A cloth bag containing ten copies of the title.

Reissue of a novel first published 2001. Concerns a man's mysterious disappearance from the small town of Mallawindy and his memory's dominance over the lives of his family. His wife waits for him to return at the gate each night until a man's body is found and the family's turbulent history is unearthed. Author's previous titles include 'Mallawindy' and 'Jacaranda Blue'.

From the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series comes a story of love and survival. Lori Smyth-Owen isn't your average teenager - as you'd expect from the only girl in a family of twelve. Or they were a family, until their father took his own life to escape his bed-bound wife, too obese to leave her room. But for Lori and the remaining brothers, there is no escape from their volatile, mentally unstable mother. They raise themselves away from the gaze of the authorities, realising that though abandoned, they are now in charge. They can control everything, including their mother's food intake. In time, their mother emerges, after losing two-thirds of her body weight. But does she bring with her the seed of hope for a better future, or will all hell break loose? 'The texture of the writing as well as the mind-boggling plots give her books a fatally addictive attraction' Saturday Age