Storytime

Love story

DESIRE LINES by Felicity Volk, Hachette

Can true love conquer all? This is the question at the heart of Australian author Felicity Volk’s deeply affecting debut novel, and the answer is complex and devastating. Set over five decades from 1952 and told in alternating narratives, we piece together the stories of Paddy and Evie. Paddy O’Connor’s childhood is shocking – abused first by his father and then by the nuns at the catholic home where his mum is forced to leave him and finally in Australia on a children’s farm. That underlying trauma contaminates everything in his adult life. Evie is raised in secure middle-class Canberra and follows her passion to become a famous landscaper. An unconventional love story follows as Evie and Paddy come together and fall apart.

Contemporary fiction

THE BEAUTIFUL MOTHER by Katherine Scholes, Penguin

The magical journey of motherhood is explored in this story of love and adventure in remote Tanzania. Tasmanianbased author Katherine Scholes was born in Tanzania and her acute connection with the country provides a layered frame for her tale as well as evocative descriptions which transport you to the waves of lush pink as the Rift Valley’s famous flamingos descend in mating season. It is 1970 and Essie Lawrence is married to an archaeologist who is working in the shadow of the volcano where four-million-year-old footprints have been discovered. These are from a species that was part-human, part-ape. But when Essie brings back a baby to the camp, everything changes.

Wartime fiction

THE YELLOW BIRD SINGS by Jennifer Rosner, Picador

The Holocaust continues to be a potent topic for fiction and non-fiction, and with anti-Semitism on the rise these powerful works send a vital message. This is US author Jennifer Rosner’s debut novel and despite the horror of this bleak period in history, it is also heartwarming. Róza and her daughter, Shira, five, hide out in a Polish family’s barn while Nazis invade. Here the duo stay silent, out of sight, and musical prodigy Shira spends long hours with music pulsing in her head, which her mother says only their imaginary yellow bird can sing.

But eventually Róza decides her daughter is not safe. She bleaches her hair and sends her to a Catholic orphanage while she hides in the forest.