ROBERT DREWE

''These stories breathe. Taut yet teeming with life, they are shot through with gritty phrases that catch at one''s throat.'' - Sydney Morning Herald Set among the surf and sandhills of the Australian beach - and the tidal changes of three generations of the Lang family - this bestselling collection of short stories is an Australian classic. The Bodysurfers vividly evokes the beach, with the scent of the suntan oil, the sting of the sun and a lazy sensuality, all the while hinting at a deep undercurrent of suburban malaise. From first publication, these poignant and seductive stories marked a major change in Australian literature.

The average Australian has conducted a lifelong love affair with the beach and the ocean shores, bays, dunes, lagoons and rivers of the coast. Until now, however, no one has attempted to match the ancient sensual and artistic preoccupation with the sea to the intuitive appreciation of the coast felt by modern beachgoers. In this illustrious international selection, Robert Drewe has drawn together twenty-five of the finest contemporary writers whose stories represent the most stimulating, startling, humorous and deeply moving writing about the beach.

"'Listen to me,' my mother says. 'They've let off an atom bomb today. Right here in W.A. Atom bombs worry the blazes out of me, and I want you at home.'" In the sleepy and conservative 1950s the British began a series of nuclear tests in the Montebello archipelago off the west coast of Australia. Even today, few people know about the three huge atom bombs that were detonated there, but they lodged in the consciousness of the young Robert Drewe and would linger with him for years to come. In this moving sequel to The Shark Net, and with his characteristic frankness, humour and cinematic imagery, Drewe travels to the Montebellos to visit the territory that has held his imagination since childhood. He soon finds himself overtaken by memories and reflections on his own 'islomania'. In the aftermath of both man-made and natural events that have left a permanent mark on the Australian landscape and psyche from nuclear tests and the mining boom to shark attacks along the coast Drewe examines how comfortable and familiar terrain can quickly become a site of danger, and how regeneration and love can emerge from chaos and loss.

Ned Kelly is the most wanted man in Australia. When the authorities bring in an army of police to catch him, Ned plans an extraordinary showdown at the Inn at Glenrowan. It is an event which will cement his status as the legendary revolutionary hero of the Australian underclass forever.

Grace Molloy is running: from herself, from city life, from a stalker...Chased out of her Sydney apartment by her fears, Grace hides out in Port Mangrove, a remote Australian town that is home to a wildlife park that protects the country''s fiercest predator: the saltwater crocodile. In the wilderness, she reclaims her sanity under the watchful eye of her father, a controversial anthropologist. Yet, Grace knows that out in the wild there are other hidden predators - ones of a more familiar cast...