October new releases

Incredible new books and giveaways

October is off to a big start, six books that are officially out this week, from epic fiction to investigative journalism. Read about them here, and to win a copy just head to our Facebook page or Instagram and let us know which one you’d most like to read and why.

From London to Berlin, from Vienna to Tbilisi, from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, the romantic and tragic fate of the members of this Georgian family is closely tied to the dark history of the twentieth century. The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili is a novel of seven exceptional lives lived under the heat and light of empire, revolution, war, repression, and liberation. At 954 pages it’s a book to get lost in, and one you won’t want to end.

What is the line between victim and collaborator? How do we judge these women? Guest House For Young Widows is an intimate, deeply reported account of the women who made a shocking decision: to leave their comfortable lives behind and join the Islamic State. Azadeh Moaveni takes us into the school hallways of London, kitchen tables in Germany, coffee shops in Tunis, the caliphate’s OB/GYN and more to demonstrate that the problem called terrorism is a far more complex, political, and deeply relatable one than we generally admit.

In Fentanyl, Inc. award-winning investigative journalist Ben Westhoff goes undercover to infiltrate the shadowy world of synthetic drugs — becoming, in the process, the first journalist to infiltrate a Chinese fentanyl lab. Westhoff travels the world to understand how the epidemic started; and chronicles the lives of addicts and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug-awareness organisers in the US and Europe. Fentanyl, Inc. is essential reading on a global calamity we are only just beginning to understand.

The Woman Who Cracked The Anxiety Code by Judith Hoare tells the remarkable true story of the little-known mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era: anxiety.

‘It’s truly astonishing that Dr Claire Weekes is not a household name … this book shines a light on her considerable achievements with great respect and meticulous detail.’ — LEIGH SALES

Politics Now is a riveting collection from David Rowe, Australia’s finest and most instantly recognisable political cartoonist.

This first and long-awaited collection throws us into the grotesque, malformed, and subterranean world that is Rowe’s vision of politics now. Enter at your own risk.

In these 22 short stories, wild capers reveal painful emotional truths, and the bizarre is just another name for the familiar. Wickedly funny and thrillingly smart, Fly Already is a collage of absurdity, despair, and love, from Etgar Keret, a master of the genre.

‘Brilliant … completely unlike any writer I know.’ — SALMAN RUSHDIE