Top of the Pile, Simon & Schuster Australia

Immersed in the underbelly of the theatre world in the gritty streets of Sydney in 1973, this addictive debut will have you wondering just how dangerous ambition – and love – can be.

Ciao Bella! is about having a dream and living it as Kate shares the sublime joys and utter chaos of adapting to a new life in Bologna, what you discover about yourself when you are a stranger in a strange land, and how she fell in love.

With a country.

Deliciously funny, irreverent, inspiring and often deeply moving, Ciao Bella! is Kate’s love letter to Italy and her family. It is also a glorious reminder of what Italians can teach us about living life to the full – and what really matters when the world goes to hell in a handbasket.

Narration: Kate Langbroek

Duration: 12 hours 42 minutes

Buy it now on audiobook: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Ciao-Bella!/Kate-Langbroek/9781760857561

NARRATION: Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood

DURATION: 13 hours and 51 minutes

Calabria, Italy, 1936

In a remote farming village nestled in the mountains that descend into the sparkling Ionian Sea, young and spirited Giulia Tallariti longs for something more. While she loves her home and her lively family, she would much rather follow in her nonna’s footsteps and pursue her dream of becoming a healer.

But as Mussolini’s focus shifts to the war in Europe, civil unrest looms. Whispers of war are at every corner and her beloved village, once safe from the fascist agenda of the North, is now in very real danger.

Caught between her desire to forge her own path and her duty to her family, Giulia must draw on the passion in her heart and the strength of her conviction. Can she find a way to fulfill her dreams or will the echoes of war drown out her voice?

Buy the audio: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Echoes-of-War/Tania-Blanchard/9781760852108

NARRATION: Julia Whelan

DURATION: 12 hours and 10 minutes

The entrancing story of a reclusive Hollywood starlet as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine – from the bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six.

Reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship and a great forbidden love.

Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Buy the audiobook: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Seven-Husbands-of-Evelyn-Hugo/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/9781761102950

NARRATION: Julia Whelan

DURATION: 9 hours and 9 minutesOne choice. Two different paths – with stunningly different results. From the bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college. On the heels of leaving yet another city, Hannah moves back to her hometown of Los Angeles and takes up residence in her best friend Gabby’s guestroom. Shortly after getting back to town, Hannah goes out to a bar one night with her friend Gabby and meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

Just after midnight, Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. A moment later, Ethan offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay. Hannah hesitates. What happens if she leaves with Gabby? What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into radically different stories with large-scale consequences for Hannah, as well as the people around her. As the two alternate realities run their course, Maybe in Another Life raises questions about fate and love: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps, most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

Buy the audiobook: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Maybe-In-Another-Life/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/9781761103148

NARRATION: Tara Sands

DURATION: 8 hours and 45 minutes

A moving and heartbreaking debut from the bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo – for fans of PS, I Love You and Me Before You

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met – and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben’s charmed romance with Elsie and Susan’s healing process, Forever, Interrupted shows us that there’s more than one way to find a happy ending.

Buy the audiobook: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Forever-Interrupted/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/9781761103087

NARRATION: Tara Sands

DURATION: 9 hours and 11 minutes

A love story about what happens when the love fades – from the bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game – and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

Buy to audiobook: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/After-I-Do/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/9781761103117

NARRATION: Julia Whelan

DURATON: 8 hours and 5 minutes

A moving love story about a woman unexpectedly forced to choose between the husband she has long thought dead and the fiancé who has finally brought her back to life – from the bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

In her twenties, Emma marries her high school sweetheart, Jesse. They build a life for themselves, living life to the fullest and seizing every opportunity for adventure. On their first wedding anniversary, Jesse is on a helicopter over the Pacific when it goes missing. Just like that, Jesse is gone forever.

Years later, now in her thirties, Emma runs into an old friend, Sam, and finds herself falling in love again. When Emma and Sam get engaged, it feels like Emma’s second chance at happiness.

That is, until Jesse is found. He’s alive, and all these years he’s been trying to come home to her. With a husband and a fiancé, Emma has to now figure out who she is and what she wants.

Who is her one true love? Emma knows she has to listen to her heart. She’s just not sure what it’s saying.

Download the audiobook at: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/One-True-Loves/Taylor-Jenkins-Reid/9781761103179

The extraordinarily moving memoir by Australian Slovakian Holocaust survivor Magda Hellinger, who saved an untold number of lives at Auschwitz through everyday acts of courage, kindness and ingenuity.

In March 1942, twenty-five-year-old kindergarten teacher Magda Hellinger and nearly a thousand other young Slovakian women were deported to Poland on the second transportation of Jewish people sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The women were told they'd be working at a shoe factory.

At Auschwitz the SS soon discovered that by putting Jewish prisoners in charge of the day-to-day running of the accommodation blocks, camp administration and workforces, they could both reduce the number of guards required and deflect the distrust of the prisoner population away from themselves. Magda was one such prisoner selected for leadership and over three years served in many prisoner leader roles, from room leader, to block leader – at one time in charge of the notorious Experimental Block 10 where reproductive experiments were performed on hundreds of women – and eventually camp leader, responsible for 30,000 women.

She found herself constantly walking a dangerously fine line: using every possible opportunity to save lives while avoiding suspicion by the SS, and risking torture or execution. Through her bold intelligence, sheer audacity, inner strength and shrewd survival instincts, she was able to rise above the horror and cruelty of the camps and build pivotal relationships with the women under her watch, and even some of Auschwitz's most notorious Nazi senior officers including the Commandant, Josef Kramer.

Based on Magda's personal account and completed by her daughter Maya's extensive research, including testimonies from fellow Auschwitz survivors, this awe-inspiring tale offers us incredible insight into human nature, the power of resilience, and the goodness that can shine through even in the most horrific of conditions.

Kitchen Confidential meets trainspotting in Last Shot, Jock Zonfrillo's coming-of-age memoir of addiction, ambition and redemption in the high-stakes world of Michelin star kitchens.

From reckless drug addict to one of Australia’s top chefs and television stars: MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo's powerful life story will shock and inspire.

Jock’s life spiralled out of control when he tried heroin for the first time as a teenager while growing up in 1980s Glasgow. For years he balanced a career as a rising star amongst legendary chefs with a crippling drug addiction that took him down many dark paths.

Fired from his job at a Michelin star restaurant in Chester, England, after a foul-mouthed rant, Jock made his way to London looking for work and found himself in front of the legendary Marco Pierre White. He credits White for saving his life, but Jock continued to struggle with addiction in a world of excess, celebrity, and cut-throat ambition.

On New Year’s Eve 1999, Jock shot up his last shot of heroin before boarding a plane to Sydney, where he would find passion and new meaning in life in the most unexpected places. There would be more struggles ahead, including two failed marriages, the closure of his prized restaurant during COVID-19, his time on-country, and some very public battles.

This is his unforgettable story.

Narrated by Jock Zonfrillo.

Forward by Jimmy Barnes.