Giveaway of The Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning

Another giveaway! This month, our sponsor, Allen & Unwin, is offering a 3 book giveaway of The Jade Lily by Kirsty Manning, a novel in which the unravelling of family secrets leads back to Shanghai in World War II.


Subscribe to our HNSA newsletter then comment on this post to enter the draw. Contest ends at 5 pm on 6 June 2019. Winning entries will be determined via random.org.

In 2016, fleeing London with a broken heart, Alexandra returns to Australia to be with her grandparents, Romy and Wilhelm, when her grandfather is dying. With only weeks left together, her grandparents begin to reveal the family mysteries they have kept secret for more than half a century. 

In 1939, two young girls meet in Shanghai, the ‘Paris of the East’: beautiful local Li and Viennese refugee Romy form a fierce friendship. But the deepening shadows of World War Two fall over the women as Li and Romy slip between the city’s glamorous French Concession and the desperate Shanghai Ghetto. Eventually, they are forced separate ways as Romy doubts Li’s loyalties.

After Wilhelm dies, Alexandra flies to Shanghai, determined to trace her grandparents’ past. As she peels back the layers of their hidden lives, she begins to question everything she knows about her family – and herself.

A gorgeously told tale of female friendship, the price of love, and the power of hardship and courage to shape us all.

‘Kirsty Manning has woven, blended, sewn the threads of history, family secrets, the past and the present into a page-turning, beautiful novel. Her talent for researching and writing a seamless dual-narrative story with characters reflecting tragedy and trauma lived, and survived, will enthral and educate. Her approach and style to the multiple cultures and countries reinforces that humanity will rise above evil. The Jade Lily is a story rich in the elements of plot, characters, and unselfish love leading to hope: the last thing to die.’ – Heather Morris, author of the bestselling The Tattooist of Auschwitz

‘This is a rich, sensual, and evocative novel, fragrant with the smell of crushed herbs and flowers, and haunted by the high cost that women must sometimes pay to find both love and their vocation.’ Kate Forsyth on The Midsummer Garden

‘…compelling, passionate and admirable.’ Australian Women’s Weekly on The Midsummer Garden

Kirsty Manning grew up in northern New South Wales. A country girl with wanderlust, her travels and studies have taken her through most of Europe, the east and west coasts of the United States and pockets of Asia.

Kirsty’s first novel was the enchanting The Midsummer Garden published in 2017. The Jade Lily, compelling and pacey, is her second book.

Kirsty is a partner in the award-winning Melbourne wine bar Bellota, and the Prince Wine Store in Sydney and Melbourne. She lives with her husband and three children amid an old chestnut grove in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria.

Good luck in the draw!

HNSA Sydney 2019 will be held on the weekend of 25-27 October 2019 at Western Sydney University Parramatta.

Once again, historical fiction writers and readers can gather for a three stream program on the weekend of 26-27 October including our extended Academic stream on Sunday 27 October. This time there’s also a Craft & Publishing program on Friday 25 October with craft workshops, masterclasses and manuscript assessments with top class tutors. Our Guest of Honour is Jackie French. Keynote speaker Paula Morris will address our theme: History Repeats.

Among the 60 acclaimed speakers are patrons Kate Forsyth and Sophie Masson, Catherine Jinks, Ali Alizadeh, Marie Munkara, Lucy Treloar, Robert Gott, Pamela Hart, Nicole Alexander, Jane Caro, Alison Goodman, Kelly Gardiner, Michelle Aung Thin, Meg Keneally, Majella Cullinane and so many more.

Our signature First Pages Pitch Contest returns with $200 prize money on offer. They’ll also be a sword fight or two with our Historical Re-enactments & Weapons display!

Enjoy a delicious meal at our conference dinner on Saturday 26 October where Anna Campbell will entertain us. You’ll also hear who’s won this year’s ARA HNSA Short Story Contest with a $500 prize.

Visit our website to purchase your early bird tickets now!

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