Thomas Keneally

The true story of Congressman Daniel Sickles, a womaniser and a cad, who shot his wife's lover in 1859, getting away with murder because of his close friendship with the president. Sickles went on to command a regiment in the Civil War and lead a life as extraordinary as any novel.

Shade lives with his second wife amid their clan on the shores of a bountiful lake. A peaceable man, he knows that when danger threatens, the Hero ancestors will call on him to kill, or sacrifice himself, to save his people.

Over 40,000 years later, Shade's remains are unearthed near the now dry Lake Learned in New South Wales. The sensational discovery fascinates Shelby Apple, a documentary film maker who tracks the controversies it provokes about who the continent's first inhabitants were and where Shade's bones belong.

Shelby goes on to follow his own heroes to the battlefields of Eritrea and the Rift Valley where Homo sapiens sprang from. When he, too, faces mortality and looks back on his passions, ideals and sorely tested marriage, Learned Man stands as an enduring spirit, a fellow player in the long, ever-evolving story of humankind.

In 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father's dairy farm. But nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, yet they find courage in the face of extreme danger and become the friends they never were before.

1942, and threatened by a possible Japanese invasion, a spirit of recklessness takes hold of the people of Sydney. In the same mood recently ordained priest, Frank Darragh, finds the line between saving others' souls and losing his own begins to blur as he becomes entangled with an attractive woman and an American GI. X rated, contains offensive language.

In the shadow of Auschwitz, Oskar Schindler, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy. Man Booker Prize Winner.

In a Middle Eastern country ruled by a dictator, lives a successful writer and war veteran. Personal tragedy causes him to catch the eye of Great Uncle. Suddenly forced to choose between endangering his friends and sacrificing his integrity or death, he flees the country to become an unwelcome asylum seeker.