‘This disquieting novel is surely one of the year’s most bizarre stories...' The New York Times 
A beguiling and disarming novel about a mysterious group of children who appear to a disfigured recluse and his country doctor. Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins, lives on a sprawling estate, cut off from a threatening world. One day, his housekeeper, Engel, discovers a baby left on the doorstep. Soon more children arrive, among them stern, watchful David. With the help of Engel and town physician Doctor Crane, Morgan takes the children in, allowing them to explore the mansion … and to begin to uncover the strange and disturbing secrets it holds. Cloaked in eerie atmosphere, this distorted fairy tale and the unsettling questions it raises will stay with the reader long after the final page. Reviews ‘The Children’s Home is a not-nice sort of fairy tale, where the magic doesn’t sparkle prettily but boils and oozes, where the Prince has a face of tatters, where the children take grown-up revenge on their monsters. It is also, somehow, a searching, empathetic narrative about forgiveness.’ Owen King, author of Double Feature: A Novel ‘ …one book that I shall re-read and re-read again.’ Postcard Reviews ‘Charles Lambert’s novel is entirely original … highly compelling and invigorating writing.’ Lonesome Reader ‘This disquieting novel is surely one of the year’s most bizarre stories… Mr. Lambert’s subtle prose enhances the novel’s creepiness, as does his refusal to fully resolve or explain its many mysteries.’ The New York Times ‘Charles Lambert has crafted an exquisitely strange and deliciously dark offering … the narrative itself will haunt his readers well beyond the margins of its pages.’ High Voltage Magazine ‘The Children’s Home is a haunting Gothic in the vein of Shirley Jackson, steeped with the mystery and imagination of Neil Gaiman’s fairy tales. Lambert’s prose is beautiful and his tale is mesmerizing.’ Cementery Dance Online ‘A thoroughly original entry into the tradition of ghost stories, eschewing convention. … Compulsively readable, a one-of-a-kind literary horror story.’ Kirkus ‘The Children’s Home is the best kind of ghost story – one that scares, one that surprises … and one that you simply can’t stop reading.’ The Maine Edge ‘… definitely recommend this if you’re in the mood for something a little creepy.’ Bored to Death Book Club ‘The Children’s Home may well be the most surprising, thought provoking and also baffling book I’ve ever read.’ Bailieborough Library Reading Group ‘Lambert is a brilliant writer, and his absorbing new novel, The Children’s Home , is the best literary fiction I have read in some time.’ Seattle Book Mama ‘The Children’s Home is a powerful construction of creeping dread which skilfully keeps the reader off-balance at every turn.’ The Star ‘There is really nothing at all in this story that isn’t strange and that’s what I ended up loving about it.’ In a Good Book Room ‘A disturbing and thought-provoking novel’ Annethology ‘Mysterious and weird and just a great read!’ Rebecca Book Review ‘Charles Lambert could one day attain classic status.’ Maggie Gee ‘Beautifully written and crafted, and more compelling than many thrillers’ Daily Mail ‘A beautiful and uncanny novel by a writer who never ceases to surprise.’ Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation ‘This genre-bending debut is by turns dread-inducing and heartwarming, a masterful exploration of whether innocence can truly sprout from ignorance….a magical, mesmerizing tale about the courage it takes to confront the unknown.’ Booklist, STARRED review ‘Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer’ Beryl Bainbridge

The Children's Home

Literature & Fiction

LAMBERT, CHARLES

Genre Fiction

Aardvark Bureau

A laugh-out-loud satire on dogma, which tests the limits of freedom of expression. Everybody at the Women’s Institute in the village of Upper Bottom is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a very special guest speaker: the world famous evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins. But with a blizzard setting in, their visitor finds himself trapped in the nearby town of Market Horten, with no choice but to take lodgings with the local Anglican vicar. Will the professor be able to abide by his motto – cordiality always – while surrounded by Christians? Will he ever reach Upper Bottom? And can his assistant, Smee, save the day? A laugh-out-loud satire on dogma, which tests the limits of freedom of expression. Everybody at the Women’s Institute in the village of Upper Bottom is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a very special guest speaker: the world famous evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins. But with a blizzard setting in, their visitor finds himself trapped in the nearby town of Market Horten, with no choice but to take lodgings with the local Anglican vicar. Will the professor be able to abide by his motto – cordiality always – while surrounded by Christians? Will he ever reach Upper Bottom? And can his assistant, Smee, save the day?

When the Professor Got Stuck in the Snow

Rhodes, Dan

Classics

"It makes me very happy that I can read this novel written over a hundred years ago as if it were contemporary and be deeply affected by it. It cannot and should not be overlooked. It is one of my favorites."—Haruki Murakami
The Miner is the most daringly experimental and least well-known novel of Japanese writer Natsume Soseki. An absurdist tale written in 1908, it was in many ways a precursor to the work of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett.
Translated by Jay Rubin, and with an introduction from Haruki Murakami, this is bound to appeal to fans of Japanese literature.

The Miner

Sōseki, Natsume

Literary

Tracy Farr’s acclaimed debut novel is the fictional memoir of Dame Lena Gaunt: musician, octogenarian, junkie.
From a solitary childhood in Malacca and a Perth boarding school to a glittering career in Jazz-age Sydney and a defining relationship with bohemian artist Beatrix Carmichael, Lena’s is a life shaped by the pull of the sea, the ebb and flow of passion and loss, and that extraordinary instrument, the theremin.
Tracy Farr is an Australian-born, New Zealand-based writer and former research scientist. The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt was longlisted for Australia’s most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award.

The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt

Farr, Tracy

The Infinite Air

"Kidman couldn't produce a poor paragraph if she tried to and this is a narrative that—I have to say it—takes wing."—New Zealand Herald
This enthralling novel is based on the life of one of the world's greatest aviators, the glamorous and daring Jean Batten.
After breaking records and becoming an international icon in the 1930s, she suddenly slipped out of view, disappearing to the Caribbean with her mother and eventually dying in obscurity in Majorca, buried in a pauper's grave.
Fiona Kidman is a Dame and an OBE for her services to New Zealand literature.

Biographies & Memoirs

Kidman, Fiona

Community & Culture

"A witty and sentient writer"—LA Times 
"Wilkins can command a breathtakingly supple literary style"—The New York Times 
1928: Thomas Hardy is dying in the upstairs room of Max Gate, the house he built in his beloved Dorset. Downstairs, his literary friends are locked in a bitter fight with local supporters. Who owns Hardy’s remains? Who knew him best? What are the secrets of Max Gate? 
Housemaid Nellie Titterington narrates this earthy and emotionally-charged novel about ambition, duty, belonging, and love. 
Damien Wilkins is the author of seven novels, including the New Zealand Book Award-winning The Miserables.

Max Gate

Wilkins, Damien

British & Irish

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN'S NOT THE BOOKER PRIZE 2017 'Sharp, funny, warm – and charmingly odd' The Guardian Grace Ambrose, Brett Beamish and Reuben Swift appear to have little in common, but as each of them negotiates metropolitan life, they find their fates entwined. Arty, liberal-minded House of Commons secretary Grace has been counting the tea breaks in the same dull job for approaching a decade and feels she could do something better ... if only she knew what. New recruit Brett, a smooth, high-flying Australian, is on a mission to shake up the dusty backrooms of power - and on a collision path with Grace. Office life begins to look up when Grace receives an email from an admirer with musical and poetic talents ... but is soulful, enigmatic Reuben Swift really who he says he is?

The Threat Level Remains Severe

MacDonald, Rowena

Humor & Satire

Katya Grubbs, like her father before her, deals in 'the unlovely and unloved'. Yet in contrast to her father, she is not in the business of pest extermination, but pest relocation.Katya's unconventional approach brings her to the attention of a property developer whose luxury estate on the fringes of Cape Town, Nineveh, remains uninhabited thanks to an infestation of mysterious insects. As Katya is drawn ever deeper into the chaotic urban wilderness of Nineveh, she must confront unwelcome intrusions from her own past.A masterful novel exploring the tensions between the natural and man-made worlds; the impossibility of imposing order on an organic landscape; and the beautiful chaos of nature.

Nineveh

Rose-Innes, Henrietta

The experience of working for Violet Trench in her small-town cafe in the summer of 1963 shapes the lives of a group of women including Jessie Sandal, who follows Violet's influence as far as Cambodia.
Fiona Kidman explores family relationships and the difficult journey to female independence.

Songs from the Violet Café

When a lion at a breeding park mauls an old school friend of his, Con must step in as the keeper of Sekhmet, the last remaining black-maned lioness in the world. In a Cape Town where fences keep people and wildlife apart, park officials and investors fret about their flagship big-cat project. And while Con grows steadily more bonded to his enigmatic charge, a cult of animal lovers seek to claim her as their own.

Green Lion

Henrietta Rose-Innes

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