Petrarch's Bookshop

Meet a local children's author Kerryn Cullen this Saturday at 10:30am as she signs and dedicates Wish Baby.

A heartwarming story with beautiful illustrations, Wish Baby brings a positive message of hope.

The biggest children's book of the year! The Midwatch is the long-awaited new middle-grade novel from internationally bestselling author–illustrator Judith Rossell, creator of the multi-award-winning novel Withering-by-Sea.

Shop now at the following link: https://shop.petrarchs.com.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9781761212369

‘The city was stuffed full of wickedness, everyone knew that …’

Banished to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways and Unwanted Girls, Maggie Fishbone is sure she’s in for a life of drudgery. But she quickly discovers there’s more to the Midwatch than meets the eye …

The city shimmers with jewels and secrets, and soon Maggie is thrust into an adventure that takes her deep underground, high above the clouds and face to face with danger itself.

Turn the page and prepare to be drawn into a lavishly illustrated world, brimming with mystery, unlikely heroines and an adventure as big as the sky.

It is always a lovely night out when you combine great company, books and food.

We had an amazing time listening to Matthew Evans talk about MILK at Stillwater.

MILK celebrates the majesty of this noble liquid, and delves into the many pretenders to its throne, from formula to mylk. It looks at how a milk-producer transforms what it eats into one of the most nutrient-dense foods available...

The epic FINAL chapter to Stephen Fry's outstanding retellings of the Greek Myths.

Shop now at the following link: https://shop.petrarchs.com.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9780241486368

Troy has fallen. After 10 years of war, the Greeks make their way back to their own lands – but what homes now await them? Agamemnon must return to his wife Clytemnestra, who has been nursing her rage since he sacrificed their daughter to the gods for a favourable wind. Her revenge will know no bounds.

Meanwhile, Odysseus has angered the god Poseidon and he is cursed to wander the seas, facing angry monsters and possessive demi-gods as he attempts to return to Ithaca and his patient, clever wife Penelope.

An epic 'three parts in one' fantasy quest, in a unique, irresistible package. Compulsive reading from the author of one of the most successful children's fantasy series ever published, Deltora Quest.

Shop now at the following link: https://shop.petrarchs.com.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9781761069758

A hero fights against the tide,
Companions battle by his side.
Danger, magic, secrets, lies,
A tyrant King who never dies,
A Prophecy that must be cheated,
Evil that must be defeated,
The menace of the fabled El…
This is the tale of Landovel.

From the legendary Emily Rodda comes an epic adventure unlike any you've read before.

Derry knows no other life than that of a captive on Cram's Rock, shunned by the other young prisoners for being Cram's poison taster. Until the day everything changes, when a traveller arrives, on the run from the sinister El executioners. She leaves Derry with a magical notebook full of secrets, secrets that might hold the key to Derry's destiny – and his past.

Once you enter Landovel, you won't want to leave. So let Emily Rodda, bestselling author of Deltora Quest, take you on the whole thrilling adventure. In an unprecedented publishing event, Landovel's three parts are available together – and only together – in one unique, irresistible package, ready for you to binge from start to finish. Presented in a stunning embellished giftbox containing all three books with colourful sprayed edges, Landovel is a special keepsake, the ultimate fantasy quest, and the perfect way to ignite young readers' passion by giving them the entire story to devour at once.

An epic novel of determination, survival, and the limits of the human spirit. This is Tim Winton as you’ve never read him before.

Shop the new Tim Winton at the following link: https://shop.petrarchs.com.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9781761344893

Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place – middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.

A day out at Launceston Library with Christina Booth having some fun drawing Purinina and listening to her story.

Limited signed copies available in-store at Petrarch’s

How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl?

Shop now at the following link: https://shop.petrarchs.com.au/details.cgi?ITEMNO=9780733340345

The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a convoluted cacophony of a career.

In the 1960s, he got his start as a physicist at the Port Kembla Steelworks and promptly joined the Steel Industries Auto Club, racing modified rally cars on Wollongong's deserted back roads. In the 1970s, he entered his self-described 'drug-crazed hippie years', making a living as a long-haired, dope-smoking taxi driver. After he applied to be a NASA astronaut in the 1980s and 'failed', he ended up live broadcasting the first space shuttle launch on Triple J instead. Unexpectedly, that blasted off his media career, and from there it was a stratospheric rise from radio to TV, books, newspapers, speaking, podcasts and the internet.

Karl's story teaches us that you don't have to know all the answers, as long as you ask the right questions. He has wandered down more than a dozen career paths, from being a TV weatherman (really) to a professional four-wheel drive tester in the outback (really) to being a roadie for Bo Diddley (really). All of these seemingly random experiences have helped create the Karl we know today.

In this long-awaited memoir, you will learn that it's okay to not take a linear path through life, and that by following our curiosities and our passions, we can bend the universe to our liking.

Anna was never going to have an easy time at her best friend’s wedding.

She’s the bridesmaid; her ex, Joel, is a groomsman.

But she’s determined to get through the festivities with a smile on her face.

Despite the fact that Joel is bringing his new partner, Bianca.
Despite the fact she’s stuck sharing a house with the newly in-love couple.
And despite the fact Anna has just turned thirty and her life is not exactly where she thought it would be by now.

Anna has all her feelings completely under control—right up until the moment Joel drops a bombshell that rocks her to her core.

An unputdownable thriller set in the pressure-cooker environment of an Antarctic winter.

An isolated research station. A storm approaching.

There's nowhere to run. But so much to hide.

The Chilling offers a compellingly icy twist on the winter thriller setting, transplanting the most haunting elements of Scandi noir to the southern hemisphere, and announces Riley James as a brilliant new talent writing in a fresh corner of Australian crime fiction.

A TALE FOR EVERYONE WHO'S EVER FALLEN FOR THE VILLAIN...

When her whole life collapsed, Rae still had books. Dying, she seizes a second chance at living: a magical bargain that lets her enter the world of her favourite fantasy series.

She wakes in a castle on the edge of a hellish chasm, in a kingdom on the brink of war. Home to dangerous monsters, scheming courtiers and her favourite fictional character: the Once and Forever Emperor. He's impossibly alluring, as only fiction can be. And in this fantasy world, she discovers she's not the heroine, but the villainess in the Emperor's tale.

So be it. The wicked are better dressed, with better one-liners, even if they're doomed to bad ends. She assembles the wildly disparate villains of the story under her evil leadership, plotting to change their fate. But as the body count rises and the Emperor

Hachette Australia Books

A tour de force set in 1938 Stalin Soviet Union, this chilling black comedy it is at once a satire and a thriller, a survivor's tale in which a father has to walk a tightrope every day to save his family from a monster and a monstrous society.

Even the worst person has a best friend.

The First Friend is a novel in a time of autocrats, where reality is a fiction created by those who rule. Reflecting on Putin's Russia, Trump's America, Xi's China and Murdoch's planet Earth, it is at once a satire and a thriller, a survivor's tale in which a father has to walk a tightrope every day to save his family from a monster and a monstrous society. Where safety lies in following official fictions, is a truthful life the ultimate risk?

From the award-winning and bestselling author Elizabeth Chadwick, comes an epic love story set against the tumultuous backdrop of high chivalry, deadly warfare, devastating plague and savage rivalry in the fourteenth century - the first of two parts telling the remarkable story of a woman who rose from royal rebel to formidable influence.

1338: England has declared war on France, and Jeanette of Kent, cousin to King Edward III, says goodbye to her family and travels overseas with the royal court for the first time. Once in Antwerp, she is captivated by talented household knight Thomas Holland, just as he in turn is powerfully drawn to her.

Although both know their romance is forbidden, their love for each other grows stronger than the danger they face, and they marry in secret. But before they can make their tryst known, Thomas has to leave for war, and in his absence, Jeanette is forced into a second marriage and locked away from the world.

Then Thomas returns, and the real fight begins. As hostile family members battle to keep Jeanette and Thomas apart, the defiant lovers vow to be reunited - whatever the cost...

Set in the world’s largest ocean, Playground explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize and interweaves profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

A POWERFUL NEW NOVEL FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AND BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THE OVERSTORY AND BEWILDERMENT

'Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep and alive' PERCIVAL EVERETT

Candice Fox’s breathtaking new thriller is quite literally the bomb! A high-octane race through outback Australia.

A notorious unmarked track through outback Australia, the ‘Wire’ crosses slabs of lawless land, body-dumping grounds and mobile-phone blackspots.

Harvey Buck is certainly desperate. Racing to be with his dying girlfriend, he encounters Clare Holland, whose car has broken down. He offers the hapless traveller a ride . . . and then their nightmare begins.

The pair are ambushed by a vengeful crew - and strapped into bomb vests. As part of a deadly game, Harvey and Clare are forced to commit a series of increasingly murderous missions, or else be blown to smithereens.

Percy Jackson is back in this highly anticipated, brand-new adventure to follow the NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, Chalice of the Gods.

THE ORIGINAL HERO. A BRAND-NEW ADVENTURE.

Percy Jackson has saved the world multiple times – battling monsters, Titans, even death himself – so graduating high school should be a breeze, right?

Wrong. Percy needs three recommendation letters from the gods before his final year in high school comes to an end. And one thing Percy knows, the gods on Mount Olympus don’t do anything for free.

From the acclaimed author of The Longest Ride and The Notebook comes an emotional, powerful novel about wondering if we can change—or even make our peace with—the path we’ve taken.

Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone: happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew—and where to find him.

This is a book to be read, treasured and shared with anyone who wants life served with a side of delight.

Virginia Trioli knows that the enduring joy of life is often found not in the big moments but in the small.

When the main course is heavy going or unappetising, the 'bits on the side' make life really delicious. Our small, meaningful selections are the ones that make life glorious, and the side dish is the perfect metaphor for what many of us need right now.

A Bit on the Side is Virginia's ode to joy, filled with wisdom, stories, memories and recipes, all told with her renowned insight and wicked sense of humour.

Petrarch's Bookseller Kathryn says "Christian White has outdone himself with 'The Ledge'. I wish I could re-read it for the first time again! Fabulously twisty Aussie crime. Loved it."

When human remains are discovered in a forest, police are baffled, the locals are shocked and one group of old friends starts to panic. Their long-held secret is about to be uncovered....

Christian is coming to Launceston on Tuesday 5 November to book your ticket https://www.trybooking.com/CURTP

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties - successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women - his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude - a period of desire, despair and possibility - a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

A great night out at Petrarch's Bookshop with Stefan Petrow, Author (Emeritus Professor of History at UTAS) and Marion Sargent, President of the Historical Society.

Much has been written about the Anzac experience in World War One, but the unique contribution of Tasmanian soldiers has been largely overlooked.

Tasmanian Anzacs expands our understanding of the Great War by drawing on previously unexamined private letters, diaries and thousands of service records of Tasmanian soldiers who served in the 12th and 52nd Battalions of the Australian Imperial Force and their families who supported them.

Recounting acts of great courage, physical and mental hardships, capture by the enemy and death on the battlefield, Tasmanian Anzacs commemorates the varied experience of Tasmanian soldiers and their grieving families endured in this richly detailed history of war's human impact.

Limited signed copies available in-store.

Dungeon Runners is an action-packed new adventure series young readers will love discovering.

CALLING ALL DUNGEON RUNNERS!

Kit has dreamed of being a Dungeon Runner all his life, although being a gnorf (part gnome, part dwarf) means he’s much smaller than the other competitors. But when a space opens up for a new team in the Dungeon Running League, Kit doesn’t want to miss this chance to try out!

With his new friends Sandy and Thorn, they’re ready to take on anything – mazes, puzzles, monsters, treasure and most of all adventure!

Are you ready for the games to begin?

What's better than fifteen minutes of Little Lunch?

Four lots of fifteen minutes of Little Lunch!

One volume, four books, and twelve hilarious stories!

The book contains four TV tie-in editions of the smash-hit TV series; Triple Snack Pack, Triple the Treats, Triple the Trouble and Triple the Laughs.