Books in the news...28-29 November

Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. He works out of a customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, fine leather chairs, a hidden gun compartment, and a heavily armed driver. He has no firm, no partners, no associates, and only one employee, his driver, who’s also his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddy. He lives alone in a small but extremely safe penthouse apartment, and his primary piece of furniture is a vintage pool table. He drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun.

Sebastian defends people other lawyers won’t go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult, who is accused of molesting and murdering two little girls; a vicious crime lord on death row; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that mistakenly invaded his house.  Why these clients? Because he believes everyone is entitled to a fair trial, even if he, Sebastian, has to cheat to secure one. He hates injustice, doesn’t like insurance companies, banks, or big corporations; he distrusts all levels of government and laughs at the justice system’s notions of ethical behavior.

Trust by Mike Bullen
The debut novel from the BAFTA Award-winning writer of TV's Cold Feet: a laugh-out-loud tale of contemporary relationships, this is perfect for anyone who has ever fallen in - or out of - love.
'Trust wasn't something you could have in degrees; it was all or nothing...'

Greg and Amanda are happy. They've been together thirteen years and have two young daughters. They're very much in love.

Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through the motions and they're just staying together for the sake of their son.

When one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil and turns an unhappy couple into love's young dream, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: trust.
Cat with the coloured tail by Gillian Mears

The boy at the top of the mountain by John Boyne
When Pierrot becomes an orphan, he must leave his home in Paris for a new life with his Aunt Beatrix, a servant in a wealthy household at the top of the German mountains. But this is no ordinary time, for it is 1935 and the Second World War is fast approaching; and this is no ordinary house, for this is the Berghof, the home of Adolf Hitler.

Quickly, Pierrot is taken under Hitler's wing, and is thrown into an increasingly dangerous new world: a world of terror, secrets and betrayal, from which he may never be able to escape.


Born to rule:The unauthorised biography of Malcolm Turnbull by Paddy Manning
The highs and lows of Malcolm Turnbulls remarkable career are documented here in technicolour detail by journalist Paddy Manning.

Based on countless interviews and painstaking research, it is a forensic investigation into one of Australias most celebrated overachievers.
Turnbulls relentless energy and quest for achievement have taken him from exclusive Point Piper to Oxford University; from beating the Thatcher government in the Spycatcher trial to losing the referendum on the republic; from defending the late Kerry Packer codenamed Goanna in the Costigan Royal Commission to defending his own role in the failure of HIH, Australias biggest corporate collapse. He was involved in the unravelling of the Tourang bid for Fairfax, struck it rich as co-founder of OzEmail, and fought his own hotly contested battle for Wentworth.
As opposition leader he was duped by Godwin Grechs Utegate fiasco; as the most tech-savvy communications minister he oversaw a nobbled NBN scheme. And now he has assumed the leadership of the Liberal Party for the second time after wresting the prime ministership from first-term PM Tony Abbott.

Will Turnbull crash and burn as he has before or has his entire tumultuous life been a rehearsal for this moment?

A strangeness in my mind by Orhan Pamuk
Since his boyhood in a poor village in Central Anatolia, Mevlut Karataş has fantasized about what his life would become. Not getting as far in school as he'd hoped, at the age of twelve he comes to Istanbul – 'the center of the world' – and is immediately enthralled both by the city being demolished and the new one that is fast being built.

He follows his father's trade, selling boza (a traditional Turkish drink) on the street, and hoping to become rich. But chance seems to conspire against him. He spends three years writing love letters to a girl he saw just once at a wedding, only to elope by mistake with her sister. And though he grows to cherish his wife and the family they have, his relations all make their fortunes while his own years are spent in a series of jobs leading nowhere.

Every evening, without fail, he still wanders the streets of Istanbul, selling boza and wondering at the 'strangeness' in his mind, the sensation that makes him feel different from everyone else, until fortune conspires once more to let him understand at last what it is he has always yearned for.