Sarah Peirse

Numbers are everything to Grace Lisa Vandenburg. The life of Grace, a Melbourne-based mathematician, is largely governed by her arithmomania, an obsessive-compulsive need to count (three times to ensure accuracy) everything from the poppy seeds on her cake to the bristles on her toothbrush. In a chaotic, sometimes tragic, and constantly changing world, Grace’s preoccupation gives her a sense of order and control. And she does her best to lead a “normal” life, spending time with her mother and sister, her beloved niece Larry… and a manifestation of the late inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla who is Grace’s closest confidante.

Jack ventures to remote New Zealand for the funeral of his estranged mother and meets her widow Jill. But his mother's spirit returns to inhabit each of their bodies, instigating a life-threatening three-way nocturnal dance.

In the midst of a new scheme to publicly report surgeons’ performance, a gifted surgeon’s life is thrown into disarray as her colleagues begin to close ranks, and even her partner, a nurse at the hospital, turns her back on her.

Many thousands of years in the future, Earth’s cities roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive traction cities, the old London, Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from the wastelands who will change the course of his life forever.

Following Smaug's attack on Laketown, Bilbo and the dwarves try to defend Erebor's mountain of treasure from others who claim it: the men of the ruined Laketown and the elves of Mirkwood. Meanwhile an army of Orcs led by Azog the Defiler is marching on Erebor, fueled by the rise of the dark lord Sauron. Dwarves, elves and men must unite, and the hope for Middle-Earth falls into Bilbo's hands.

The Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the Dragon, Smaug.

Bliss tells the story of Katherine Mansfield in her early 20s as she leaves New Zealand and begins her journey as a writer.

After her husband leaves her, a woman travels to London for the funeral of the pop star, Victor Fox, she's adored all her life. There, she meets the lover of the dead pop star, and convinces him to come back to Chicago with her to figure out who killed the singer.

Janey is on vacation with her family at their beach house on the Mahurangi Peninsula in New Zealand. Her parents, Ed and Kate, are on the verge of divorce and sit around drinking whiskey all day, while Janey and Jim are left to their own devices. Cady, a local boaty who is having an affair with Kate, catches Janey's pubescent eye.

Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.