Billie King by Shannon Kelly-White

Billie King by Shannon Kelly-WhiteA blisteringly fast, fresh, funny and hugely entertaining novel of mothers, daughters and one gutsy wild colonial girl who gets caught up in Australia's last female bushranger's quest for revenge. Think Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife meets Trent Dalton. 1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna seems more furious than frightened, and it's the

two brothers on either side of it are divided

The tyranny of distance was the greatest engineering problem facing Australia

or seem to talk: about the weather

Tofu and ginger dumplings

Only on Bruny does the world seem sane

One hundred pages

even if it means sacrificing everything she cherishes

compelling and beautifully crafted elegy not only to birds but to feeling itself

remotely pilot them and make it a game

is the bible du jour - a must-read for anyone looking for a modern take on spirituality

Kit's journey to find Billie takes her through shuttered towns destroyed by drought

Matthew Flinders was a country boy who wanted to be a sailor