Leah Kaminsky Bücher

A response to the devastating 2019-20 bushfires, Animals Make Us Human both celebrates Australia's unique wildlife and highlights its vulnerability. Through words and images, writers, photographers and researchers reflect on their connection with animals and nature. They share moments of wonder and revelation from encounters in the natural world: seeing a wild platypus at play, an echidna dawdling across a bush track, or the inexplicable leap of a thresher shark; watching bats take flight at dusk, or birds making a home in the backyard; or following possums, gliders and owls into the dark. Hopeful, uplifting and deeply moving, this collection is also an urgent call to action, a powerful reminder that we only have one world in which to coexist and thrive with our fellow creatures. By highlighting the beauty and fragility of our unique fauna, Australia's favourite writers, renowned researchers and acclaimed photographers encourage readers to consider it in a new light

Set against the backdrop of 1936 Berlin, a young zoologist, Ernst Schäfer, is drawn into a secret SS mission to uncover the origins of the Aryan race in Tibet. As he pursues this ambition, his marriage to Herta, a nonconformist flautist, becomes strained as she questions his choices and the moral implications of their lives under the Nazi regime. The narrative serves as a poignant exploration of ambition, complicity, and the haunting consequences of history, told through the perspectives of both the animals affected and the conflicted wife.

“The Waiting Room is both haunted, and haunting.”—Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March The Waiting Room unfolds over the course of a single, life-changing day, but the story it tells spans five decades, three continents, and one family’s compelling history of love, war, and survival As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Dina’s present has always been haunted by her parents’ pasts. She becomes a doctor, emigrates, and builds a family of her own, yet no matter how hard she tries to move on, their ghosts keep pulling her back. A dark, wry sense of humor helps Dina maintain her sanity amid the constant challenges of motherhood and medicine, but when a terror alert is issued in her adopted city, her coping skills are pushed to the limit. Interlacing the present and the past over a span of twenty-four hours, The Waiting Room is an intense exploration of what it means to endure a day-to-day existence defined by conflict and trauma, and a powerful reminder of just how fragile life can be. As the clock counts down to a shocking climax, Dina must confront her parents’ history and decide whether she will surrender to fear, or fight for love.

Set against the backdrop of 1930s Australia, a young woman escapes Nazi Germany with her cherished doll collection, seeking refuge in a remote outback town. As she navigates her new life as a nanny, her past remains a closely guarded secret until she meets Alter Mayseh, a Yiddish poet fleeing persecution. Their blossoming romance offers hope, but Alter's suspicions about Anna's hidden history lead him to uncover a clue that could unravel her carefully constructed life. Themes of love, belonging, and the shadows of the past intertwine in this poignant tale.