About the author

Born in Sydney and raised around NSW, Sarah, 48, is one of those rare beings who grew up without television. “It meant that I read a lot,” she says. “On winter evenings, my family sat around the fire and each read our own book, and sometimes played cards.” This, she says, “allowed my imagination to flourish”. Although she longed to be a novelist, she went into journalism, working for the ABC, but quit after eight years to write a novel, Salt Rain, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Miles Franklin Award. She lives in Mullumbimby with her partner, Alan Close, and daughter Amelia. Promise is her third novel.