Memoirs

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

John Dale: Wild Life

Tasmania 1942, and the body of a 40-year-old man is found in a car. Murder or suicide? Sixty years later the man's grandson investigates and uncovers a fascinating story, telling it in the observant, blunt prose of a 1940s gumshoe, but with a novelist's sensibility.

(Allen & Unwin, $35)

Howard Reid: Dad's War

A son, whose life is haunted by his father's, sets off in search of the truth. Ian Reid was captured in 1943 and sent to Italian prisoner of war camps, escaping five times. Fabulous, dangerous exploits; poignant legacy of war down the generations.

(Bantam, $27.95)

Neely Tucker: Love in the Driest Season

A hardened international correspondent's life changes when, in troubled Zimbabwe, an orphaned girl holds his finger and grabs his heart. Wanting to adopt her, he and his African wife must overcome many obstacles put in their way by President Mugabe's campaign against foreigners.

(Bantam, $27.95)

Patricia Atkinson: The Ripening Sun

A vineyard in France -- sounds romantic, but think about it: the sheer backbreaking labour required to produce even a drop of the good stuff. Thus found the luckily plucky Atkinson, left on her own once her ill husband had returned to England. A journey from naivety to international markets.

(Arrow, $26.95)

Pat Conroy: My Losing Season

"Winning is wonderful in every aspect, but the darker music of loss resonates on deeper, richer planes." So says Conroy in his prologue to this bittersweet, coming-of-age memoir of childhood on US military bases, a violent father, and the basketball ambitions that gave early meaning to his life.

(Arrow, $27.95)