Simon Leys was a noted sinologist and writer who remains most famous for the zeal and lucidity with which he tried to demystify and destroy the cult of Mao Zedong.

"I'm ready for it and I think most people are ready for it and I really don't see what the fuss is about - this is about looking at the facts of things and confronting them, as we have always done."

Roy and Celestial's marriage is derailed when he is jailed for a crime he didn't commit.

In this novel Anne Holt's two lead characters investigate three crimes 14 years apart, an old murder case and two current cases of suicide and kidnapping respectively.

Sarah Krasnostein has won the $100,000 Victorian Prize for Literature for her remarkable book, The Trauma Cleaner.

This is essentially a story about human feeling and its capacity to trump tribalism and enforced, artificial enmity.

Samantha Silva has a lot of fun with A Christmas Carol and with the facts of Charles Dickens' life.

This meticulous biography explores the complexities of Stuart Challender's character and pays tribute to his unique contribution to musical life in Australia.

Rogue Nation examines the range of alternatives that have sprung up like mushrooms on the mulch of disenchantment with mainstream politics.

This collection of stories about the love affairs of great composers shows that their private lives could be as soap operatic as their compositions.

The brain, we are told, craves stimulation but it also craves emptiness, possibly to rest our defence system.

Rose McGowan has suffered some hard knocks, from a cult to homelessness to repeated abuse. The actress, director and musician, who has become a vocal women's rights advocate, opens up about her trauma in her memoir "Brave," which comes out Tuesday.

• Wordplay

Words continue to delight, puzzle, perplex and surprise us all.

Literary news and events in Canberra.

Nora Roberts leads the Sci-Fi bestsellers chart with Year One.

Dan Sheehan's novel about male friendship flits between comic buddy narrative and brutal trauma.

Ruby Wax makes people laugh but she makes them think as well. Her new book offers readers plenty of material for self-improvement.

Daniel Ellsberg is, perhaps, the original whistleblower – all the time he was compiling handwritten copies of classified Vietnam policy, he was copying US nuclear war plans.

Whether Martin Sharp liked it or not, he is possibly most famous for his LP covers, especially for Cream: Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire.

Justin Myers is a natural raconteur and The Last Romeo is replete with the sharp wit and tenderness that made The Guyliner such a success.

Jessica Watson's YA debut unites maritime adventure and a strong female protagonist with a splash of romance and an enchanting current of fantasy.

Danny Denton constructs a maze-like narrative that winds around a boy who has stolen a baby from a powerful criminal overlord.

A.D. Divine's experience on one of the little ships at the retreat from Dunkirk gives his account a sense of immediacy.

Daniel Pink concludes that the most productive times for most people conform to what he calls a "peak-trough-rebound" pattern.