A tale of suffering, sorrow, and redemption, "Ransom" is a retelling of one of the most famous stories in all of literature--Achilles's slaughter and desecration of Hector, and Priam's attempt to ransom his son's body in Homer's "The Iliad."

Each house, like each place, has its own topography, its own lore. A complex history comes down to us, through household jokes and anecdotes, odd family habits and irrational superstitutions, that forever shapes what we see and the way in which we see it. In his book, David Malouf, one of Australia's most prestigious writers, takes an unsentimental journey into his past. Beginning with his childhood home, he moves on to show other landmarks in his life, and the way places and things create our private worlds. Written with humour and uncompromising intelligence, 12 Edmondstone Street is an unforgettable portrait of one man's life.

Typewriter Music begins with a memory of new love - with 'grace unasked for, urgencies that boom under the pocket of a shirt' - and ends in the intimate territory of the long-familiar relationships that define our lives as we grow old. This volume is marked by a breadth of intelligence, stepping lightly among the objects of our lives and the wonder of everyday encounters, and then journeying across the globe, in a flight of music, imagination, history and language.