Father’s Day Gift Ideas
Father’s Day is fast-approaching and the perfect gift for your fatherly figure is on our bookshelves.
In God Save the Queen Dennis Altman, a celebrated academic, investigates the unexpected durability and potential benefits of constitutional monarchies; The Orchard Murders is the fourth novel in Robert Gott’s acclaimed Murders series, set in Melbourne during the dark days of the Second World War; and Fox and I is Catherine Raven’s inspiring, moving, surprising, and often funny memoir about the transformative power of her unusual friendship with a wild fox;
Read on for a list of excellent Scribe titles or explore more here, and find a bookshop near you.
FOR THE POLITICALY MINDED FATHER
God Save the Queen
An avowed republican investigates the unexpected durability and potential benefits of constitutional monarchies.
When he was deposed in Egypt in 1952, King Farouk predicted that there would be five monarchs left at the end of the century: the kings of hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades, and England. To date, his prediction has proved wrong, and while the twentieth century saw the collapse of monarchies across Europe, many democratic societies have retained them.
God Save the Queen is the first book to look at constitutional monarchies globally, and is particularly relevant given the pro-democracy movement in…
King Richard
From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account — told from inside the White House — of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president.
In January 1973, Richard Nixon was inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasised into what White House counsel John Dean called ‘a full-blown cancer’. King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and…
Alpha
A Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter uncovers the story of the shocking rise and fall of a decorated Navy SEAL accused of war crimes, the fellow SEALs who turned him in, and the court martial that captivated the nation.
After nearly twenty years of military service, Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was admiringly described by those who served with him as ‘aggressive’, had risen in the elite command teams to the rank of chief petty officer.
But one bright May morning in 2017, Gallagher’s trademark aggression culminated in the death of an unnamed ISIS fighter. Several men in Alpha platoon swore they saw…
FOR THE ESCAPIST FATHER
The Orchard Murders
A novel about revenge, obsession, and the dangerous gullibility of religious fanatics.
In 1944, in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, a brutal triple murder heralds the return of a long-forgotten cult. A man named Anthony Prescott has declared himself the Messiah and has promised his followers immortality. There are those who believe him and who are ready to kill in his name. Inspector Titus Lambert of the Melbourne Homicide unit, whose detectives are over-stretched, requests the discreet assistance of Helen Lord and Joe Sable, once members of his unit, now private inquiry agents. The investigation…
The Newcomer
There's no such thing as a perfect victim.
In a hotel room on a sleepy Pacific island, Judy Novak waits. And worries. It isn’t the first time 29-year-old problem child Paulina has kept her mother waiting. But Judy can’t ignore the island’s jagged cliffs and towering pines — or the dread that Paulina has finally acted on her threats to take her own life.
When Paulina’s body is discovered, Judy’s worst fears seem confirmed. Only, Paulina didn’t kill herself. She was murdered.
So begins a thorny investigation, wherein every man on the island is a suspect yet none are as maligned as Paulina: the…
In Moonland
WINNER OF THE 2022 AGE BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR FICTION
HIGHLY COMMENDED IN THE 2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION
‘A parent’s love for a child, you probably know this yourself, it’s pretty bottomless. It goes down into the guts of the world. But a child’s love for a parent is different. It goes up. It’s more ethereal. It’s not quite present on the earth.’
In present-day Melbourne, a man attempts to piece together the mystery of his father’s apparent suicide as his young family slowly implodes. At the ashram of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in 1976, a man searching for salvation must…
FOR THE LEARNED FATHER
Fox and I
WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD
A solitary woman’s inspiring, moving, surprising, and often funny memoir about the transformative power of her unusual friendship with a wild fox.
Catherine Raven left home at 15, fleeing an abusive father and an indifferent mother. Drawn to the natural world, she worked as a ranger in national parks, at times living in her run-down car on abandoned construction sites, or camping on a piece of land in Montana she bought from a colleague. She managed to put herself through college and then graduate school, eventually earning a PhD in…
Black and Blue
WINNER OF THE 2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S PRIZE FOR LITERATURE
WINNER OF THE 2022 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR INDIGENOUS WRITING
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DOUGLAS STEWART PRIZE FOR NONFICTION
The story of an Aboriginal woman who worked as a police officer and fought for justice both within and beyond the Australian police force.
A proud Gunai/Kurnai woman, Veronica Gorrie grew up dauntless, full of cheek and a fierce sense of justice. After watching her friends and family suffer under a deeply compromised law-enforcement system, Gorrie signed up for training to become one of a rare few Aboriginal police…
The Art of More
Bestselling science writer Michael Brooks takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of civilisation, as he explains why maths is fundamental to our understanding of the world.
1, 2, 3 … ? The human brain isn’t wired for maths; beyond the number 3, it just sees ‘more’. So why bother learning it at all?
You might remember studying geometry, calculus, and algebra at school, but you probably didn’t realise — or weren’t taught — that these are the roots of art, architecture, government, and almost every other aspect of our civilisation. The mathematics of triangles enabled explorers…