Collins Booksellers Christmas Reading Guide 2015 December 2015 | Page 5

follow us fiction The Lake House Kate Morton RRP $32.99 Rain Music Sadie stumbles upon an abandoned house and learns the story of a baby boy who disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, the formidable Alice Edevane, now an old lady, leads a life as neatly plotted as the bestselling detective novels she writes. Until a young police detective starts asking questions Our Price about her family’s past... Di Morrissey RRP $35.00 Rain Music is inspired by Di’s adventures in far north Queensland – its characters, its forgotten history, its modern dilemmas. A brother and sister, Ned and Bella Chisholm, are struggling with a family tragedy that has set them on opposite paths. Ned Our Price disappears and when Bella goes in $ search of her brother, she ends up in 00 remote Cooktown. 2799 $ 30 The Japanese Lover Isabel Allende RRP $39.99 The Life and Death of Sophie Stark From internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende comes an exquisitely crafted love story and multigenerational epic that sweeps from presentday San Francisco to Poland and the United States during WWII. Our Price Anna North RRP $29.99 This is a story of an enigmatic film director, told by the six people who loved her most. Brilliant, infuriating, all-seeing and unknowable, Sophie Stark makes films said to be ‘more like life than life itself’. But her genius comes at a terrible cost: to her husband, to the brother she left behind, and to the actress she can’t forget. 3499 $ The Women’s Pages Debra Adelaide RRP $29.99 Hester and Harriet Hilary Spiers RRP $29.99 After her mother’s death, Dove decides to write a whole new story for herself, for her mother and for their literary heroines. In undertaking this labour of love, Dove unwittingly taps into the universal story of choice, grief and compromise that women everywhere experience. Widowed sisters, Hester and Harriet, live in a comfortable cottage in a pretty English village. On Christmas day they come across a waif-life girl, Darla, hiding with her baby and bring them home. But when the deeper mysteries in Daria’s story surface Hester and Harriet find their lives turned upside down. the Magic Strings of Frankie Presto Chance Developments Mitch Albom RRP $35.00 Alexander McCall Smith RRP $22.99 In this beguiling book, Alexander McCall Smith casts his eye over five chanced-upon photographs and imagines the stories behind them. Who were those people, what were their stories? Some will find joy and fulfilment, others would prefer happier endings. Each of them, though, will find love, and that is ultimately what matters. 305654_1015_BEY1442_OPTA.indd 116/10/15 3:04 PM Due 16th november 5 the Violinist of Venice Alyssa Palombo RRP $29.99 Alyssa Palombo’s The Violinist of Venice is a story of music, ambition, and finding the strength to both fall in love and to carry on when it ends. It is a sweeping historical novel about composer and priest Antonio Vivaldi, a secret wealthy mistress, and their passion for music and each other. Due 10th november Frankie Presto is sent to America. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings. But Frankie’s talent is unique, and he becomes a pop star. He finds that through his music, he can actually affect people’s futures. With one string turning blue whenever a life is altered. Rush Oh! Shirley Barrett RRP $32.99 This is a story about a whaling family in Eden, New South Wales, who form a unique allegiance with a pod of killer whales, told from the point of view of eldest daughter Mary Davidson. Rush Oh! is poignant and hilarious, filled with drama and misadventure.