Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jacob, arrive to stay with her, they are told by her housemate that Maya has gone away and no one knows where she is. As Toni and Jacob wait and search for Maya in Melbourne, everything in their lives is brought into question. They recall the yearning and dreams, the betrayals and choices of their pasts - choices with unexpected and irrevocable consequences. With Maya's disappearance, the lives of all those close to her come into focus, to reveal the complexity of the ties that bind us to one another, to parents, children, siblings, friends and lovers. Pacy and enthralling, The Good Parents is at once a vision of contemporary Australia and a story as old as fairytales: that of a runaway girl.
"London’s dark and lovely work is both a novel of ideas and one of emotions. Here are dangerous currents that pulse beyond control, as well as the great intellectual movements that shape our lives." Roxana Robinson, New York Times
The Age Book of the Year Shortlist 2008 Fiction
Burning In
$27.95 – Paperback book / Giramondo Publishing
In her late twenties, Martine Hartmann moves from Sydney to New York to pursue her career as a photographer, leaving behind her mother Lotte, a holocaust survivor. Nine years later, Martine's daughter Ruby goes missing i... Buy or find out more →
Orphan Gunner
$29.95 – Paperback book / Giramonndo
A romance between two young Australian women, set in Bomber Command in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. Evelyn has escaped to England to become one of the few female pilots with the Air Transport Auxiliary. Jour... Buy or find out more →
Diary Of A Bad Year
$35.00 – Hardcover book / Text Publishing
A famous writer is commissioned to contribute to a book of
essays called Strong Opinions when he meets a young woman who lives
in his apartment tower.
He asks her to become his . . .
In the laundry room of her apartment ... Buy or find out more →
Breath
$45.00 – Hardcover book / Hamish Hamilton
Winner of the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and ... Buy or find out more →
The Good Parents
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Vintage
Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jaco... Buy or find out more →
The Good Parents
The Good Parents
$21.95$19.95 – Paperback book / Vintage
Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jaco... Buy or find out more →
The Good Parents
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Vintage
Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jaco... Buy or find out more →
Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009 Shortlist
Forbidden Cities
$24.95 – Paperback book / Penguin Nz
This story collection by Paula Morris roams the globe and ranges widely in subject matter. From Sunset Boulevard to the beaches of Auckland, from the Bund in Shanghai to the banks of the Danube, from the Brooklyn Bridge ... Buy or find out more →
Evening Is The Whole Day
$32.99$27.95 – Trade paperback / Harper Collins
Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding first novel introduces us to the prosperous Rajasekharan family as it slowly peels away its closely guarded secrets.
When the family's rubber–plantation servant girl is dismissed for un... Buy or find out more →
The Shallow End
$24.95 – Paperback book / Clouds Of Magellan
‘It was one of the most perfect days, only just warm enough, an ever so slight breeze I could see in the hairs on my arm and in the flutter of the flags across each end of the pool but couldn’t feel. It must have been th... Buy or find out more →
Breath
$45.00 – Hardcover book / Hamish Hamilton
Winner of the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and ... Buy or find out more →
The Good Parents
$32.95 – Trade paperback / Vintage
Maya de Jong, an eighteen-year-old country girl from the West, comes to live in Melbourne and starts an affair with her boss, the enigmatic Maynard Flynn, whose wife is dying of cancer. When Maya's parents, Toni and Jaco... Buy or find out more →
The Spare Room
$35.00 – Hardcover book / Text Publishing
An extraordinary work of fiction from one of Australia's best-selling and most admired writers
Helen prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola, who is flying down from Sydney for a three-week visit. But this is no or... Buy or find out more →