Family Drama

Allegra in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel, Pan Macmillan

Allegra is 11, living in 1970s Bondi and bounces between her two grandmothers and her surfie dad. What happened to her mother is the mystery at the heart of this story and we can only reach it through our tapestry of characters. Matilde, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, is intense and wants Allegra to study hard to be a doctor. Joy is a free-spirited feminist, has a tortoise called Simone de Beauvoir and collects her tears in glass bottles. And Rick is a gambling addict and desperately misses Allegra’s mum. The plot swirls, a mighty wave which crashes as tensions erupt.

THE MODEL WIFE by Tricia Stringer, HQ Fiction

Mum, wife, teacher, caregiver to all, Natalie King is 58 when she is struck by a health crisis which makes her rethink her life. She lives on a farm in South Australia, has three daughters who are fully grown but for various reasons still hanging around, a non-committal husband and an over-bearing mother-in-law. Now it is time for Natalie to find herself and the unlikely catalyst is a book her mother-in-law gave her years before – The Model Wife, written in 1928 – offering key advice for young wives.

THE MITFORD SCANDAL by Jessica Fellowes, Little, Brown

Number three in the delicious Mitford Murders Series sees Diana, 18, the most beautiful of the Mitford sisters, wed fortune heir Bryan Guinness and head to Paris. But their gay life is punctured when one of their party is found dead – is a murderer amongst them?

THE CLERGYMAN’S WIFE by Molly Greeley, Allen & Unwin

Pride and Prejudice fans will remember Charlotte Collins, who sensibly married ridiculous vicar Mr Collins. This tale imagines what happens when true passion enters Charlotte’s universe.