DIEBE DES LICHTS de Philipp Blom

The brilliant historical novel about murder, revenge, love, loyalty and betrayal, set in war-torn sixteenth-century Europe.

DIEBE DES LICHTS
(The Light-Thieves)
by Philipp Blom
Blessing/PRH Germany, October 2022

Sander has been on the run ever since 1572, when he saw his father murdered at the hands of the Spanish invaders in Flanders. He meets a master who teaches him how to paint flowers, while his brother Hugo, who hasn’t spoken a word since their parents’ death, mixes the paints for him. But Hugo is as unreliable and quick to anger as he is gentle, and when he commits a violent crime, he and Sander have to flee. They find refuge in an artist’s studio in Rome, witness the Pope’s dissipation, are caught up in the intrigues proliferating in the Neapolitan cardinal’s palace, and – both in their own special way – experience the joy of forbidden love. In the course of their adventures, Sander repeatedly finds a way out of seemingly hopeless situations …
A major new novel that vividly portrays the Renaissance and its key players, including Giordano Bruno, Caravaggio and high-ranking clerics.

Philipp Blom, born in 1970, studied philosophy, history and Judaism in Vienna and Oxford, and obtained his PhD from Oxford with a thesis on the reception of Nietzsche. He is the author of bestselling history books including « The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900–1914 » (2009) and « Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918–1938 » (2014), and has won the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Literature and the NDR Kultur Prize for Non-Fiction. DIEBE DES LICHTS is his first work of historical fiction.

IN THE TIME WE HAVE LEFT de Mary Louise Kelly

A meditation on work and parenting that focuses on the stage when your children are preparing to leave the nest. American broadcaster and journalist Mary Louise Kelly reckons with the compromises she has made – as most people have – while managing a busy life and career, and what it feels like now that the time she has left with her children at home is starting to run out.

IN THE TIME WE HAVE LEFT:
Thoughts on a Finish Line of Motherhood
by Mary Louise Kelly
Holt, late 2022
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

Can she get to her son James’s soccer game on Thursday? Nope. Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered, has to be at the studio all afternoon, reporting the news. Drive carpool for Alexander next week? Not if she wants to be part of the press corps flying to Iraq with the Secretary of Defense. She has never been cavalier about these decisions. The bargain she has always made with herself is this: this time I’ll get on the plane, but next year, I’ll be there for the mom stuff.
Well, James and Alexander are now 17 and 15, and a new realization has overtaken her: in only one year, her older son will be leaving for college. The time for do-overs is over. There used to be years to make good on her promises; now, there are months, weeks, minutes.
Mary Louise Kelly is coming to grips with the reality every parent faces. Unlike your marriage or your job, childhood has a definite expiration date. You have only so many years with your kids before they leave your house to build their own lives. It’s what every parent is supposed to want, what they raise their children to do. But the effect of this on her and her husband will be immense. It is at best bittersweet, at worst, devastating. And it brings with it the enormous questions of what she did right and what she did wrong.
Mary Louise has become consumed by these thoughts. What’s she’s written is not a definitive answer – not for herself and certainly not for any other parent. But her questions, her issues, will resonate with every parent. And, yes, especially with mothers, who are judged more harshly by society and, more importantly judge themselves more harshly. What would she do if she had to decide all over again?
This is no political tract, there is no correct answer. But her thoughts as she faces the coming year will speak to anyone who has ever cared about a child. IN THE TIME WE HAVE LEFT is not a manifesto; it’s an examination that is moving, often funny, revelatory and immensely relatable.

Mary Louise Kelly has been reporting for NPR for nearly two decades and is now co-host of All Things Considered. She has also written two suspense novels, Anonymous Sources and The Bullet, and is the author of articles and essays that have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal among numerous other publications.

BRIMSTONE de Russel Hutchings

How far would you go to protect your country?
“Think: Jason Bourne meets Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets Sicario.” – Graeme Coleman, executive producer

BRIMSTONE: A Mantra 6 Thriller
by Russel Hutchings
Big Sky (Australia), December 2021
(via Randle Editorial)

John Devereaux, an SAS Warrant Officer, is seconded to the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and handed a mission that will test him to his very core – both professionally and personally. The operationally deniable mission: infiltrate into Cambodia via parachute in the dead of night and assassinate two high-value targets, alone, and with two dozen enemy soldiers in his way. From the relentless jungles of Cambodia to the chaotic civilian-filled streets of Sydney and Bangkok, to the secretive dens of Moscow and the extravagant French Riviera, explosive SAS and ASIS action uncovers a shadowy and powerful organisation that brings us face to face with the Russian Mafia, and an assassin getting intimate. Unbeknown to Devereaux, the Director-General of the Secret Intelligence Service, Magnus Webb, is testing him for a far more important role – to head an off-the-books clandestine cell buried deep inside this secret organisation and known only as MANTRA-6. Devereaux’s mission has only just begun …
The writing is direct, engrossing and thundering along at breakneck speed, much like its lead protagonist, for fans of Chris Ryan, Andy McNab, Robert Ludlum and classic James Bond style espionage.
Despite the book not being released yet, there is already a feature film in development, with director Storm Ashwood and producers Brenden Hill (former Dreamworks – Instinct) and David Perkins (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift) already attached.

Born in Perth, Russel Hutchings is a former SAS Warrant Officer with over 20 years of service in the Regiment. He has operated in many of the world’s troubled areas and most recently performed a role as a military advisor to a US based company operating in Afghanistan. He draws on decades of experience in the world’s most terrifying war zones, and uses his experience of collecting intelligence for national security to write an authentic and high octane trilogy, Mantra 6.

THE MADNESS LOCKER d’Eddie Russell

A brilliant dual narrative, historical crime fiction title inspired by a true unsolved murder case, asking questions about integrity, identity and if there is such a thing as ‘the right side’ in the fog of war.This novel has all the rich detail needed for enthralling historical fiction, with a fascinating mystery at its heart, culminating in a heartracing twist.

THE MADNESS LOCKER
by Eddie Russell
Big Sky (Australia), October 2021
(via Randle Editorial)

In the early hours of Christmas morning in 1986, the body of an older woman was discovered inside a wheelie bin in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. There were no clues and no suspects. After an extensive investigation, the police admitted defeat and filed it as a cold case. It is a case that taunts them still. Eddie Russell’s debut conjures a plausible motive to this strange crime in this artfully wrought, page-turning story which takes the reader from Utrecht to Berlin, to Auschwitz, and finally, to a sleepy neighbourhood in Sydney, Australia.
Autumn, 1986. Ruth, a Jewish woman in her later years, is grieving the death of her husband. His old friend, a widowed neighbour called Sam, offers her comfort. But Ruth feels there is something off about Sam. Whatever story he’s peddling, she doesn’t buy it. She’s determined to uncover the truth about how he came to find himself in Sydney and where his real loyalties lie.
Winter 1941. Two young girls living under the tyranny of a brutal and dictatorial Nazi regime experience a fateful twist, leading one to escape to freedom and the other to be subjected to incarceration in a concentration camp, and how she got there is buried in the depths of her memory. But remembering is key. Somebody is responsible for her ending up in the depths of hell. And, if she survives, she will make that person pay if it’s the last thing she does…
In an extraordinary story of hidden identity, revenge and deception, THE MADNESS LOCKER is a chilling reminder that the truth will always catch up with you someday.

Eddie Russell has a degree in English literature and Masters in Creative writing. Born and raised in the then English colony of East Africa to English parents, he immigrated to Australia to complete his schooling before moving to San Diego to work in technology. He is now settled back in Australia with his life partner and following his passion to write. THE MADNESS LOCKER is his first novel. You can watch Eddie introduce the novel here.

NOWHERE FOR VERY LONG de Brianna Madia

In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life.

NOWHERE FOR VERY LONG:
The Unexpected Road to an Unconventional Life
by Brianna Madia
HarperOne, April 2022

A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband. Nowhere for Very Long is her story of exploration—of the world outside and the spirit within.
Brianna knew her road would be the one less traveled from an early age. Rejecting the competitive and capitalistic path set out before her, she chose to seek a different version of happiness, a road scary, uncertain, and entirely her own. But pursuing a life of intention isn’t always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, and even desperate—when the van overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of South Dakota highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and her water jugs froze beneath her as she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But she was living a life true to herself, come what may, and that made all the difference.
NOWHERE FOR VERY LONG is the chronicle of a woman learning and unlearning, from backroads to breakdowns, married to solo, and finally, from lost to found.

Brianna Madia is a writer, adventurer, and desert-dweller. For the last several years, she and her now three pups Bucket, Dagwood, and Birdie call her big orange van, Bertha, home. An avid climber, canyoneer, mountain biker, kayaker, and explorer, Brianna believes in moving against the grain, embracing her true self, and trying all the things that scare you.