Christos Tsiolkas

Georgia Blain

Judy Nunn

Craig Silvey

Alex Miller

Rachael Treasure

Malla Nunn

Nick Earls

Mark Dapin

Includes stories by: Maggie Alderson, Georgia Blain, Mark Dapin, Nick Earls, Alex Miller, Judy Nunn, Malla Nunn, Craig Silvey, Rachael Treasure, Christos Tsiolkas.

Ten Short Stories You Must Read in 2010

Longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award & Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Thirteen-year-old David is confused and staying in Bondi with his grandparents. His mum seems to have abandoned him to run off with her lover, and his grandfather, Jimmy, spends his days at the local RSL grumbling with his best mates, all of them Jewish survivors of the Thai–Burma Railway. But underneath their bickering and banter struggle three men haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades. The only person Jimmy can confide in is David, a boy from a different world, who is trying to make sense of his future and the daunting business of growing up. Praise for Spirit House 'The writing has real freshness . . . the story glides effortlessly from an intriguing start to a hear-warming resolution . . . Dapin impresses with the understated authority of his storytelling.' The Telegraph (UK) 'Funny, poignant, vibrantly witty . . . a treat.' Canberra Times 'Strikingly original, [this is] a novel of war and its terrible legacies that eschews sentimentality, that is full of uniquely funny and wonderfully human characters, and is also profoundly moving and honourable.' Christos Tsiolkas

Spirit House

In the centenary of World War One, here are the Anzacs in their own words. From the Trenches is a collection of gripping, awe-inspiring and sometimes terrifying accounts of life at the front, recorded by those who lived through the fighting. Drawn from diaries, memoirs and letters, as well as poetry, reportage and prose, this collection reminds us that the Anzac legend is rooted in real and tragic circumstances on a heartbreakingly human scale. Belying the common perception of the laconic digger, these compelling voices convey the range of wartime experience, from the desolation and horror to the unbridled excitement and camaraderie. Through it all runs the bleak toll on young lives. Author and journalist Mark Dapin has selected writing from those on the frontlines as well as behind the scenes, from officers and soldiers to nurses, engineers and reporters, to create a volume that will be regarded as the definitive record of the personal experiences that forged the emerging national identities of Australia and New Zealand. 'Bloodlust, fury and despair ping off the pages.' Courier-Mail 'This is one of the finest collections of war writing assembled, astutely analysed and sensitively compiled.' Weekly Times

The Best ANZAC Writing of World War One

From the Trenches

In the Australia of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, armed robbers were the top of the criminal food chain. Their dash and violence were celebrated, and men like Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox and Ray Denning were household names long before Underbelly established Melbourne's gangland thugs as celebrities. Cox and Denning were once Australian Public Enemies Number One and Two. Both were handsome, charismatic bandits who refused to bow to authority. Both were classified as 'intractable' in prison, and both escaped. Cox was the only man to escape from Katingal, Australia's only 'escape-proof' jail. Soon after he broke out, he tried to break in again and rescue his mates. Their story is one of violence and crime, but it is also about the unimaginable horrors that young boys faced when condemned to 'institutions' in the 1960s, and the terrible conditions in Australian jails in the 70s and 80s. These were the hells where a whole generation of armed robbers was forged. Mark Dapin brings his brilliant research skills and distinctive, powerful narrative style to a book that explores the life of these infamous yet respected public enemies and the criminal world they inhabited. From armed robberies, shootings and bashings to prison floggings and jail breaks, this is the gritty, page-turning reality behind the headlines.

Russell 'Mad Dog' Cox, Ray Denning and the Golden Age of Armed Robbery

Public Enemies

Dapin's words cut into the organs of the criminal underworld like a surgeon's knife!' DAVID McMILLAN, Klong Prem Central Prison Bangkok escapee 'Mark Dapin has built a rapport with some of Australia's most serious criminals. It is a rapport that gives him an edge over other authors that cannot be replicated.'BERNIE MATTHEWS, Long Bay Correctional Centre escapee On a Sunday afternoon in 1980, armed robber Gregory David Roberts abseiled down the front wall of a maximum-security prison in broad daylight. He spent a decade on the run in West Asia before writing his own legend in the bestselling semi-autobiographical novel, Shantaram. In the late nineties, Melbourne-based drug dealer and gangster David McMillan became the only Australian ever to escape from the so-called 'Bangkok Hilton' in Thailand. And in 1999, armed robber John Killick was airlifted out of a maximum-security prison by his beautiful Russian-born girlfriend - after she hijacked a helicopter with a machine gun. With unprecedented access to ex-prisoners, prison officers and police, as well as ASIO files and witnesses, Mark Dapin brings to life a hidden criminal world of prison brutality, courage and legend. Prison Break tells the real story behind Australia's most audacious prison escapes and proves that sometimes the truth is even more compelling than the myth.

Shantaram to the Bangkok Hilton, The World's Most Wanted Australians

Prison Break

The real stories behind Gregory Roberts, John Killick and Australia's most daring prison escapes.

Shantaram to the Bangkok Hilton: the Truth Behind Australia's Most Daring Escapes

A landmark history of Australian Jews in the military, from the First Fleet to the recent war in Afghanistan. Over 7000 Jews have fought in Australia's military conflicts, including more than 330 who gave their lives. While Sir John Monash is the best known, in Jewish Anzacs acclaimed writer and historian Mark Dapin reveals the personal, often extraordinary, stories of many other Jewish servicemen and women: from air aces to POWs, from nurses to generals, from generation to generation. Weaving together official records and interviews, private letters, diaries and papers, Dapin explores the diverse lives of his subjects and reflects on their valor, patriotism, mateship, faith and sacrifice.

Mark Dapin

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