Audiobooks narrated by Lewis Fitz-Gerald

Warra Warra Wai: How Indigenous Australians discovered Captain Cook, and what they tell of the comin

For the first time, the First Nations story of Cook's arrival, and what blackfellas want everyone to know about the coming of Europeans Both 250 years late and extremely timely, this is an account of what First Nations people saw and felt when James Cook navigated their shores in 1770. We know the European story from diaries, journals and letters. For the first time, this is the other side. Who were the people watching the Endeavour sail by? How did they understand their world and what sense did they make of this strange vision? And what was the impact of these first encounters with Europeans? The answers lie in tales passed down from 1770 and in truth-telling of the often more brutal engagements that followed. Darren Rix (a Gunditjmara-GunaiKurnai man, radio reporter and Archie Roach's nephew) and his co-author Craig Cormick travelled to all the places on the east coast that were renamed by Cook, and listened to people's stories. With their permission, these stories have been woven together with the European accounts and placed in their deeper context: the places Cook named already had names; the places he 'discovered' already had peoples and stories stretching back before time; and although Cook sailed on, the empire he represented impacted the people's lives and lands immeasurably in the years after. 'Warra Warra Wai' was the expression called to Cook and his crew when they tried to make landfall in Botany Bay. It has long been interpreted as 'Go away', but is perhaps more accurately translated as 'You are all dead spirits'. In adding the First Nations version of these first encounters to the story of Australian history, this is a book that will sit on Australian shelves alongside Cook's Journals, Dark Emu and The Fatal Shore as one of our foundational texts.

Craig Cormick, Darren Rix (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald, TBD, Wayne Blair (Narrator)

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The Soul: A History of the Human Mind

Everyone thinks they have one, but nobody knows what it is. For thousands of years the soul was an 'organ', an entity, something that was part of all of us, that survived the death of the body and ventured to the underworld, or to heaven or hell. The soul could be saved, condemned, tortured, bought. And then, mysteriously, the 'soul' disappeared. The Enlightenment called it the 'Mind'. And today, neuroscientists demonstrate that the mind is the creation of the brain. The 'religious soul' lives on, in the minds of the faithful, while the secular 'soul' means whatever you want it to mean. In The Soul: A History of the Human Mind critically acclaimed historian Paul Ham embarks on a journey that has never been attempted: to restore the idea of the soul to the human story and to show how belief in, and beliefs arising from, the soul/mind are the engines of human history. The Soul tells the story of the inner 'I', the strange essence of ourselves, and how it has been animated, immortalized, loved, armed, inflamed, enslaved, illuminated and enlightened over 250,000 years: from the dawn of self-consciousness among the earliest Sapiens to the ancient Hindu and Egyptian ideas of immortality and rebirth; from the Jewish self-conception of the 'Chosen' to the Ancient Chinese and Greek theories of soul; from the rise of the Christian spirit that broke the Roman Empire to the Islamic conquests and crusading Christians; from the divided souls of the Reformation to the 'rational' soul/mind of the Enlightenment; from the missionary spirit that harvested souls for western empires to the earliest recognition of the souls/minds of women. We enter the dark night of the soul under totalitarian rule; contemplate the harrowing and fragmentation of the modern mind; and glimpse the rise of the synthetic spirit of artificial intelligence. The Soul is much more than a mesmerizing narrative and uniquely accessible way of explaining the human story. It transforms our understanding of how history works. It persuasively demonstrates that the beliefs of the soul/mind are the engines of human history.

Paul Ham (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths

'My writing allows me flight from society through solitude while permitting me to rejoin society on some of my own terms through the trading of the finished work with the society. My imaginative narrative gives me relief from prevaility and strident ideologies by allowing me the heresy of decadence (as in erotica). Namely, revenge against normality, reversal of normality and regression from normality. My imaginative narrative is relief from prevailing self by allowing the potential self, the discarded self, the rejected self and the non-self to have play. My imaginative narrative is relief from privacy by allowing exposure of self and the network of self.' ~ Frank Moorhouse, 1985, private telex Frank Moorhouse was legendary in Australian literary and cultural life, the author of a huge and diverse body of work - essays, short stories, journalism, scripts, the iconic Edith Trilogy - an unapologetic activist, intellectual, libertarian and champion of freedom of speech and sexual self determination. Though he lived his life publicly, his private stories have not been shared, the many paths he forged left unexamined, until now. Matthew Lamb shared many a luncheon table with Moorhouse and immersed himself in the archived life and cultural ephemera of Frank's world. This landmark study, from Moorhouse's own publisher, the first in a projected two volumes, is the fascinating and comprehensive story of how one of Australia's most original writers and pioneer of the discontinuous narrative came to be. Fearless, sardonic and utterly dedicated to his creative life, his relationships with friends, other writers and lovers were complex and long-lasting. Lamb shares the strange paths that Frank traversed and gives us a cultural history of the times that shaped Moorhouse and which Moorhouse himself helped to shape

Matthew Lamb (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Matthew Lamb (Narrator)

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Those Who Perish

A REMOTE ISLAND. AN ISOLATED COMMUNITY. A KILLER PICKING THEM OFF ONE BY ONE ... 'You should be careful, Mr Zelic. Because the person who killed Peter Taylor will almost certainly kill again.' The detective's glassy eyes didn't blink. 'And you're already in their sights.' Deaf PI Caleb Zelic has always been an outsider, estranged from family and friends. But when he receives a message that his brother, Anton, is in danger, Caleb sees it as a chance at redemption. He tracks Anton down to a small, wind-punished island, where secrets run deep and resentments deeper. When a sniper starts terrorising the isolated community, the brothers must rely on each other like never before. But trust comes at a deadly price ... 'Tense and atmospheric.' GARRY DISHER 'I rate Emma Viskic as Australia's best crime writer - vivid characters, ingenious plots and a passionate social conscience' PHILLIP ADAMS 'Compelling.' CHRIS HAMMER 'Addictive.' DERVLA McTIERNAN 'Thrilling.' CHRISTIAN WHITE

Emma Viskic (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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The Power Of Suffering

The Power of Suffering is psychologist David Roland's personal investigation into the nature of human suffering. When our world is turned upside down, what does it do to us, how do we survive it, and, most importantly, how can we grow as a result? David takes the lived experience of eleven incredible people and follows them along each step of their journey from crisis through to acceptance and triumph. Within each story, David draws on his own experience of life-altering trauma and clinical research to offer insights we all can gain from. Each life story examined is a moving testimony of the human spirit's ability to rise and rise again - an executive tragically loses his family in a car crash and finds healing in the rehabilitation of wildlife, a teenage victim of domestic violence becomes a fierce advocate for abused women and brain-injured youth, a football superstar overcomes bigotry and dyslexia to forge a career in acting, a mother experiences the aching depth of love lost after her teenage child's life is tragically cut short. These are but a few of the intimately told stories, all pointing to a path through the storm and beyond. The Power of Suffering is a revelatory account of how the darkest night can lead to the most profound dawn.

David Roland (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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The Matriarch: The Kath Pettingill Story

Kathy Pettingill is a name that's both respected and feared, not only by Australia's criminal underworld, but by many in the Victorian police force. As the matriarch at the head of the most notorious and violent family of habitual offenders in Australian criminal history, her life has revolved around murder, drugs, prison, prostitution and bent coppers - and the intrigue and horror that surround such crimes. Her eldest son, Dennis Allen, was a mass murderer and a $70,000-a-week drug dealer who dismembered a Hell's Angel with a chainsaw. Two younger sons were acquitted of the Walsh Street murders, the cold-blooded assassination of two police officers that changed the face of crime in Melbourne forever. One of the two, Victor, was gunned down himself in the street 14 years later, becoming the third son Kathy has buried. In this revised and updated authorised edition of Adrian Tame's bestselling The Matriarch, Kathy Pettingill reveals the chilling truth behind many of the myths and legends that surround her family, including her experiences in the blood-spattered charnel house at the centre of Dennis Allen's empire of drugs and violence. But this is no plea for pity. Forthright and deeply disturbing, like its subject, The Matriarch pulls no punches. Updated and revised for a new generation, this true crime classic is as terrifying and powerful as when it was first published.

Adrian Tame (Author), Kelly Butler, Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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And Fire Came Down

Deaf since early childhood, Caleb Zelic is used to meeting life head-on. But now, his best mate is dead, his ex-wife, Kat, is avoiding him and nightmares haunt him. But when a young woman is killed, after pleading for his help in sign language, Caleb is determined to find out who she was. And when the trail leads him back to his hometown, he uncovers secrets that could threaten any chance of reuniting with Kat and his life.

Emma Viskic (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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On the Java Ridge

In Canberra, a Federal election looms and Cassius Calvert, Minister for Border Integrity is facing a new hard-line policy regarding asylum-seekers. Off the Indonesian island of Dana, Isi Natoli, skipper of the Java Ridge, and a group of Australian surf tourists are anchored beside an idyllic reef. A few kilometres away, Roya and her mother are amongst the passengers fleeing persecution aboard the Talakar. When a storm breaks, these stories collide with chilling consequences...

Jock Serong (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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The Lost Pages

It is 1908, and Max Brod is the rising star of Prague's literary world. But when a rival appears on the scene, Max discovers how quickly he can lose everything he has worked so hard to attain. The Lost Pages is a richly reimagined story of Max Brod's life filtered through his relationship with Franz Kafka. In this inspired novel of friendship, fraud, madness and betrayal, Marija Peri?i? writes vividly and compellingly of an extraordinary literary rivalry.

Marija Pericic (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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Resurrection Bay

Profoundly deaf since early childhood, Caleb has always lived on the outside - watching and picking up tell-tale signs people hide in a smile, a cough or a kiss. When a childhood friend is murdered, a sense of guilt and a determination to prove his own innocence sends Caleb on a hunt for the killer. But he can't do it alone...

Emma Viskic (Author), Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Lewis Fitz-Gerald