October 2022 Media Bites Catalogue

OCTOBER 2 022 – NON - F ICT ION -

The Book of Roads and Kingdoms R I CHARD F I D L E R A lost imperial city, full of wonder and marvels. An empire that was the largest the world had ever seen, established with astonishing speed. A people obsessed with travel, knowledge and adventure When Richard Fidler came across the account of Ibn Fadlan – a tenth-century Arab diplomat who travelled all the way from Baghdad to the cold riverlands of modern-day Russia – he was struck by how modern his voice was, like that of a twenty-first century time-traveller dropped into a medieval wilderness. On further investigation, Fidler discovered this was just one of countless reports from Arab and Persian travellers of their adventures in medieval China, India, Africa and Byzantium. Put together, he saw these stories formed a crazy quilt picture of a lost world. The Book of Roads & Kingdoms is the story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam’s fabled Golden Age; an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India. Imperial Baghdad, founded as the ‘City of Peace’, quickly became the biggest and richest metropolis in the world. Standing atop one of the city’s four gates, its founder proclaimed: Here is the Tigris River, and nothing stands between it and China. Fidler expertly weaves together these beautiful and thrilling pictures of a dazzling lost world with the story of an empire’s rise and utterly devastating fall. Released: 19/10/2022 NSH | 480pp But through it all, Brooke didn’t just survive, she found her voice and thrived, and in this raw, heartbreaking, often funny and ultimately life-affirming memoir, Brooke lays her journey bare about how she refused to allow the past to define her and reclaimed her own identity – and realised the power of love, for herself, for her family, and her community. Released: 05/10/22 TPB | 256pp AU $34.99 NZ $37.99 Imprint: HarperCollins Big Love: Reclaiming myself, my people, my country BROOK E B LU R TON A raw, moving and uplifting memoir about courage, resilience and the transformative power of love, from one of Australia’s most captivating personalities From the moment Brooke Blurton appeared on Australian television, she dazzled audiences with her authenticity, self-knowledge, generosity and honesty. As a proud young Noongar-Yamatji woman, Brooke’s connection to her culture and country is deep, and as an openly queer woman, she knows that love is simply love. Most of all, Brooke knows the importance of family, and the uplifting power of unconditional connection. But behind the public persona, Brooke presents to the world a story of epic proportions and awe-inspiring resilience – she had to grow up fast from a very young age, surviving an extremely challenging childhood and youth, and overcoming the shocking legacy of intergenerational trauma, abuse and homelessness. She’s also had to defy labels and perceptions about who she is, and her worth, all her life.

AU $39.99 NZ $45 Imprint: ABC Books

NON - F ICT ION