In the mid 1990’s, Stefan Novak’s life is unravelling. A brilliant glass technician, his business in Melbourne is failing and his Aboriginal partner, Tania, has left him without explaining why.

In the midst of his troubles, celebrated Aboriginal Australian glass sculptor, Lennard Currie, contacts Stefan and invites him to Fremantle in Western Australia. He plans to model a cenotaph on Jandamarra’s Rock in the Kimberley – where he lost the love of his life, Rosalie.

He needs Stefan’s skills with glass to help him create the spectacular monument, intended to commemorate the 20,000 Aboriginal warriors who died in the frontier wars resisting colonisation. It will be a beacon of truth and reconciliation for the Aboriginal and wider Australian communities.

Stefan accepts Lennard’s lifeline and they spend the next four years grappling with the problems of completing such an ambitious project. They face unexpected challenges, disheartening setbacks and threats of violence, fighting fire with fire. They must succeed, to give a voice to Australia’s First Nations people, their ancestors and future generations.

Inspired by issues around colonisation and racism tearing at the heart of the nation today, Bright Flame Dark Shadows is a powerful novel of emotional intensity and historical accuracy. It is an insightful, enthralling read. Bright Flame Dark Shadows is Book I in The Truth & Reconciliation Trilogy.

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Gerrit de Waal is born in 1686 during the Dutch Golden Age of oceanic exploration and trade. His life is thrown into confusion when his seafaring father’s ship, the Ridderschap van Holland, mysteriously disappears in the Indian Ocean in 1694. He is eight years old and growing up in cosmopolitan Middelburg, Zeeland. He develops a steely sense of purpose and resilient independence of spirit as he survives into adulthood.

At twenty-six, Gerrit signs on aboard the VOC cargo vessel Zuytdorp, as the senior carpenter, determined to find out what happened to his father. He wants to trace his footsteps and see if he can be found. Suspecting his ship may have been wrecked off the coast of Eendrachtsland – known to us as Western Australia – Gerrit sets sail, resolved to see if the crew survived.

Shipwrecked himself during a cyclone in June, 1712, he is saved from drowning by his close friend, Sunil Dewaraja, a Ceylonese pearl diver and seaman in the crew. Cast ashore on the Australian continent, they avoid certain death after a chance meeting with a local Aboriginal Malgana family. Assimilation does not come easily, in the place where the sun meets the sea.

Brilliant glass technician Stefan Novak uses the notes, charts and sketches of his friend, celebrated Aboriginal Australian sculptor Lennard Currie, to write a novel based on Gerrit’s life. Lennard has researched the de Waal family and believes his family tree intertwines with theirs.

The Kite Flyer is a vividly imagined novel that takes a remarkable moment in Dutch and Australian history and brings it graphically to life.

The Kite Flyer is Book II in The Truth & Reconciliation Trilogy.

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Free-spirited part-indigenous Mexican, Alicia Serrano, loses her mother, Suré, just after her birth in 1960. Motherless, Alicia develops a purposeful and resolute independence as she faces the challenges she encounters as she develops into womanhood.

She and her eighteen-year-old brother Andrés are exceptional athletes. Selected as a reserve distance runner for the Mexican Olympic team, Andrés becomes embroiled in student unrest engulfing Mexico in 1968. When he and Alicia attend a rally on the Tlatelolco Plaza twelve days before the Games, a massacre occurs. After a bullet smashes Andrés’s left ankle his foot is amputated, and Alicia helps him through his struggles to adapt to the tragedy.

Alicia’s father, Victor, fosters her passion and talent for languages as she grows up. When she qualifies with a doctorate in linguistics in 1989, she travels to Spain where she meets Alain Leroy, a West Australian. He is preparing to lead an expedition kayaking down the Niger River from the source in Guinea to the sea, a feat never accomplished before. He convinces Alicia to join the team. They become lovers. When Alain is murdered by Sierra Leonean terrorists, Alicia is distraught. She travels to WA to return his ashes to his parents.

There she challenges herself by hitch-hiking to Arnhemland to study Aboriginal languages. She accepts a lift with Lennard Currie, an Aboriginal activist and celebrated glass sculptor travelling to Windjana Gorge. He invites her to travel back to Fremantle with him, to assist in resurrecting his near extinct Malgana language. She meets the last three fluent speakers, realises the importance of the task and feels she has come home.

Emotional and absorbing, Alicia is a vividly imagined novel that brings a remarkable Mexican woman and feminist to life. Set during a watershed period in Mexican history, Alicia explores the themes of motherlessness, grief and the importance of language in the contemporary world.

Alicia is Book III in The Truth & Reconciliation Trilogy.

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Mexico City, 1968. The Olympic Games are due to be held in October. Under the strict authoritarian presidency of Díaz Ordaz, Mexico is going up in flames. Rebellious school and pro-democracy university students are protesting and their demonstrations are threatening the Games.

Eighteen-year-old Andrés Serrano is among the demonstrating university students. Part Tarahumaran Indian, he is an outstanding distance runner. He’s been training all his life for the Olympics. Sixth in the 10,000 metres at the Olympic trials, he is selected as a reserve for the Mexican team.

His eight-year-old sister, Alicia, is a remarkable girl who faces life’s challenges and setbacks with courage, resilience and determination. She is highly intelligent and also a gifted athlete, helping Andrés in his quest. Her mother, Suré, died a month after Alicia was born. She grieves the loss and develops a resolute independence as a result of it.

They are both supported by their father, Victor. Sent alone to Mexico from Spain in 1937 when he was twelve-years-old to avoid the turmoil of the civil war raging there, he never returned.

Twelve days before the Games, Andrés and Alicia attend a peaceful demonstration on the Tlatelolco Plaza. The Government reaction is ruthless. With the Olympics under threat, armed soldiers are sent in to disperse the demonstrators. They fire on the crowd, killing hundreds, including children. It is a watershed moment in Mexico’s turbulent political history.

Andrés is shot in the left ankle and his foot has to be amputated. He faces enormous challenges as he recovers and reorients his life goals. Alicia supports him throughout, especially when he is selected by the German Ottobock company to test their latest prosthetics, with a view to convincing the Olympic Committee to ratify them for the Paralympics in 2000.

My Brother Andrés is a spellbinding Young Adult YA coming-of-age story of family love, resolve and survival against the odds. Set during a watershed period in Mexican history, the novel explores the themes of being motherless, family love and grief with heartrending accuracy.

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In the mid-west coastal town of Geraldton in Western Australia, six white and indigenous teenagers form binding friendships as they experience the joys and pains of adolescence. Thrown together at school, deep alliances develop into unbreakable bonds. In 2022 they form a brotherhood dedicated to making sense of their lives as they embark on the journey to becoming men.

Artistic Summer Dartson is their visionary and a dreamer, Spanner O’Toole has mechanical and engineering skills, Willie Mack is their scribe and wit, Bones Scully is their runner and science enthusiast Mozzie Buzzacott is the youngest of them. Tiny Jameson is their leader, guide and guardian. He drives an old Jeep Wrangler and is two years their senior.

Based in their tin shack at Lucky Bay, they develop a code, adopt Prince’s song 1999 as their anthem, and undergo tattooing as an initiation. They learn about the family and social issues each experiences as they set out on a series of adventures and quests to test the limits of their endurance.

When Mozzie Buzzacott, is found dead 100 metres below the Kalbarri Skywalk on 4 January, 2025, they have a mystery to solve and a murder to avenge. That part of the west coast is difficult for the Australian Border Force to patrol, and it has become a gateway for the drug smuggling cartels. The five surviving members of the group pit their wits against the latest murderous drug smugglers, and win.

The Dreams Of Summer Dartson is a spellbinding Young Adult YA coming-of-age story of adolescent boys maturing into men. Set during the distressing period of the banning of the Rock Lobster export to China, and just after the Covid lockdowns, this absorbing novel explores the themes of mateship and courage under fire with humour and evocative insight.

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This collection offers you a cleverly crafted mix of short stories and vignettes that capture life in its disquieting, heart-warming and always remarkable moments. You will relive the challenges faced by characters fated to explore the boundaries of their known worlds and histories to make sense of their unfolding lives.

There is the ten-year-old autistic chess player who has an epiphany on a voyage from Spain to Mexico in 1937, the Tamil pearl diver who risks his life to save his younger brother in 1709, the bullied South African schoolboy who takes his revenge ten years later, and the Italian Australian investigating his family tree who is surprised by an Asian ancestor – among many other characters experiencing love, grief, joy, despair, humour, regret and resolve. They’re lying in wait for you.

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From magical realism to humour, from love and loss to bittersweet observations of human nature, Thank You, Gabe entertains you with 24 memorable stories and short pieces written with emotional intensity.

You’ll meet an international group of vibrantly drawn contemporary and historical characters who’ll come alive for you: an Australian university lecturer, a Korean chocolatier, Dutch shipwreck survivors, a world renowned Aboriginal glass artist, Mexican siblings caught up in the Tlatelolco massacre in 1968, and even Czech writer Franz Kafka’s sister, the unforgettable heroine Ottla Davidová, among many others.

Set in evocatively drawn landscapes dating from 1590 – today, the stories sweep across the world from Kenya, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands to the Czech Republic, Guinea in West Africa and Western Australia

Covering themes that include racism, genocide, empathy, spiritualism, Aboriginal culture and heritage, and colonialism, the research into historical events and contemporary social and political concerns is deep and accurate.

Thank You, Gabe offers you some delightful examples of writing at its best: passionate, insightful and deeply felt, each with a subtle twist in the tale.

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