Prize of the month

In Sydney, Josiah Steele is the new head of the family and grappling with his two very different sons — David, upstanding, decent and heir to the family enterprises; and Benjamin, wayward, restless and a magnet for trouble.

To give Ben some responsibility, Josiah sends him on a trade mission straight into the territory of their soon-to-be enemy.

As war erupts across Europe, its repercussions are felt in the Pacific.

Ben and David find themselves caught up in the first Australian action of World War I — the fight to take possession of German New Guinea.

But that is only the start.

The brothers will see desperate action across Egypt, Palestine, and the terrible killing fields of the Western Front.

And the years of war, mud and bloody battlegrounds will forever change the Steele family.

Australian author Peter Watt has spent time as a soldier, articled clerk, prawn trawler deckhand, builder's labourer, pipe layer, real estate salesman, private investigator, police sergeant, surveyor's chainman and adviser to the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. He speaks, reads and writes Vietnamese and Pidgin.

Peter now lives at Maclean on the Clarence River in northern NSW. Fishing and the vast open spaces of outback Queensland are his main interests in life.

He spends six months of the year working as a volunteer bush firefighter with the NSW Rural Fire Service. In the past, Peter has also been a volunteer training officer on the Murray River with the Volunteer Rescue Association, and also a volunteer ambulance emergency driver with the Queensland Ambulance Service.

The Ghosts of August by Peter Watt is published by MacMillan Australia, RRP $34.99.

The Echoes by Evie Wyld

Set between rural Australia and London, The Echoes is a story about the weight of the past and the promise of the future

Max didn’t believe in an afterlife. Until he died.

Now, as a reluctant ghost trying to work out why he remains, he watches his girlfriend Hannah lost in grief in the flat they shared and begins to realise how much of her life was invisible to him.

In the weeks and months before Max’s death, Hannah is haunted by the secrets she left Australia to escape.

A relationship with Max seems to offer the potential of a different story, but the past refuses to stay hidden.

It finds expression in the untold stories of the people she grew up with, the details of their lives she never knew and the events that broke her family apart and led her to Max.

Both a celebration and an autopsy of a relationship, spanning multiple generations and effortlessly moving between 20th century rural Australia and modern-day South London, The Echoes is a novel about love and grief, stories and who has the right to tell them.

It asks what of our past we can shrug off and what is fixed forever, echoing down through the years.

Author Evie Wyld grew up in Australia and the UK. She is part owner of Review, a small independent bookshop in London.

Her second novel, All the Birds, Singing, won the 2014 Miles Franklin Award, and her third novel, The Bass Rock, won the 2021 Stella Prize.

The Echoes by Evie Wyld is published by Vintage Australia, RRP $34.99.

GIVEAWAY

We have six copies of The Ghosts of August and three copies of The Echoes to give away. The first three entries drawn will receive a copy of both books; the next three entries drawn will win a copy of The Ghosts of August only.

For a chance to win, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question: What is the breed of horse pictured on the front page of Country News this week? Entries close on Thursday, December 5 via post to: Country Life ‘Echoes and Ghosts’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632; or email to: competition@countrynews.com.au — please include the words ‘Echoes and Ghosts’ in the subject line.

WINNERS

The winners of The Youngest Son book giveaway are: Eileen Reilly, Yarroweyah; Colleen Traynor, Nagambie; Shelley Sloots, Kialla; and Naomi Egglestone, Mooroopna. Congratulations! You can collect your prize from the Shepparton News office at 7940 Goulburn Valley Hwy, Shepparton.