A wayward, wanton selection of stories grounded in displacement, desire, and the wish coursing through us to accede to the state of love. There is torment and illness, crude reality and distant fragrant places, peopled by characters that reside close to our bones, our psyches, our flesh. A Japanese soprano has lost her voice and seeks repose on a sailing boat in Corsica. A South African advertising executive learns the ropes at his Accra office. Destructive lovers interview a renowned musician in dusty Bamako. Lovers meet, fade, delude. We are weak and defiant beings, ever-learning, ever-lustful. Fine stories, rank with exotic air, bursting like old fruit. - Bruce Pascoe McNamara's work has a fierce, vital beat, her stories robust yet finely worked, her voice striking in its confidence and originality. She writes with sensuous precision and a craft that is equally precise. This is fiction that can stand up in any company. - Hilary Mantel

A wayward, wanton selection of stories grounded in displacement, desire, and the wish coursing through us to accede to the state of love. There is torment and illness, crude reality and distant fragrant places, peopled by characters that reside close to our bones, our psyches, our flesh. A Japanese soprano has lost her voice and seeks repose on a sailing boat in Corsica. A South African advertising executive learns the ropes at his Accra office. Destructive lovers interview a renowned musician in dusty Bamako. In London, a Rome-based man happens upon a woman from the past, bringing back a passionate interlude he has hidden from himself. Lovers meet, fade, delude. We are weak and defiant beings, ever-learning, ever-lustful. 'Fine stories, rank with exotic air, bursting like old fruit.' -- Bruce Pascoe 'McNamara's work has a fierce, vital beat, her stories robust yet finely worked, her voice striking in its confidence and originality. She writes with sensuous precision and a craft that is equally precise. This is fiction that can stand up in any company.' -- Hilary Mantel

From one of Australia's most lauded writers, comes a wonderfully wrought work, melding intrigue, romance, comedy and deception. A melancholy sadness which courts by never surrenders to depair. Taking the form of three interwoven novellas: the first centred on an aging art forger; the second on a Portuguese poet, opium addict and art collector, the third on a mysteriously well connected doctor who has built an art gallery in tropical Queensland. A must for all good bookstores.

Music: An Art and a Language is an in-depth textbook in the context of early 20th century New York all on the topic of music: different forms, artists, and composition. Contents: "Preliminary Considerations 1 II. The Folk-Song III. Polyphonic Music; Sebastian Bach, the Fugue IV. The Musical Sentence V. The Two-Part and Three-Part Forms VI. The Classical and the Modern Suite VII. The Rondo Form VIII. The Variation Form."

We bring into full light some excerpts on musical subjects which were until now scattered throughout the most famous scientific texts. The main scientific and musical cultures outside of Europe are also taken into consideration. The first and most important property to underline in the scientific texts examined here is the language they are written in. This means that our multicultural history of the sciences necessarily also becomes a review of the various dominant languages used in the different historical contexts. In this volume, the history of the development of the sciences is told as it happened in real contexts, not in an alienated ideal world.