HarperCollins Media Bites September 2020

Sorrow and Bliss MEG MASON

‘A triumph. A brutal, hilarious, compassionate triumph’ Alison Bell, The Letdown

This novel is about a woman called Martha. She knows there is something wrong with her but she doesn’t know what it is. Her husband, Patrick, thinks she is fine. He says everyone has something, the thing is just to keep going. By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn’t really matter any more. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing – if you can find something else to want. The book is set in London and Oxford. It is sad and funny.

‘I just adored this book. It’s timely and dark and poignant and funny. It was filled with such eviscerating compassion and rage; I couldn’t get enough of it. I inhaled it in a single weekend, unable to put it down. Meg Mason is a searing talent’ Kate Leaver, The Friendship Cure ‘This is a romance, true, but a real one ... as devastating and sharply witty as Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag ’ Bookseller+Publisher

Released: 02/09/20 TPB | 352pp AU $32.99 NZ $35.00 Imprint: 4th Estate

megmason.com

The Bird in the Bamboo Cage HA Z E L GAYNOR China, 1941. With Japan’s declaration of war on the Allies, Elspeth Kent’s future changes forever. When soldiers take control of the missionary school where she teaches, comfortable security is replaced by rationing, uncertainty and fear. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School. Now the enemy, separated indefinitely from anxious parents, the children must turn to their teachers – to Miss Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially – for help. But worse is to come when the pupils and teachers are sent to a distant internment camp. Unimaginable hardship, impossible choices and danger lie ahead. hazelgaynor.com

Released: 02/09/20 TPB | 400pp AU $29.99 NZ $32.99 Imprint: HarperCollins

F ICT ION