*please note that this is a private launch, please only attend if you have been invited*
 
Lotte by Martin Raymond
 
in 1933, Lotte has left behind the poverty of her childhood. She has a fine house in the best street and a tentative position in Stirling society for her young family.
 
But when her children are asleep, Lotte ceaselessly walks the town’s streets and rural paths, winding further away from home each night, driven by guilt and ghosts she cannot forget.
 
Lotte can’t outrun the long shadow of her mind, and her small town cannot explain the erratic wandering woman in their midst, placing her in an asylum, never to be heard from again.
 
A century later, a chance remark leads her grandson on a path to uncovering Lotte’s fate, delving into knots of family secrets, unravelling the stories silenced by small-town propriety.
 
Family myths and notes from the asylum collide in this moving, immersive debut novel, giving a voice to lost lives, a glimpse of solidarity between generations.
 
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Teardrop by Sue Amos
 
As a girl, Jazz Barthelot knew that a gecko falling on your right side foretold a sudden death. But what place do aunties’ tales have in the rapidly modernising island of Ceylon, and how to navigate the shifting sands of home?
 
In 1950s Ceylon, trying to forge her own way while British rule collapses, Jazz begins her new life as a journalist – when a gecko falls on the side of her desk at the newspaper office. 
 
A body is discovered in the state reservoir, and Jazz accompanies seasoned crime reporter Sonny to the Eastern Province. Jazz quickly learns her trade as they travel between spice markets and hopper stalls, interviewing Tamils, expats, and indigenous tribes, following leads that dry up quickly under the hot sun. 
 
Pulled between old and new worlds, between languages, and families, Jazz and Sonny must decide if their future remains on the teardrop island, and whether crimes can be left in the past.