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'You can talk about living in the Mallee. And you can talk about a Mallee tree. And you can talk about the Mallee itself: a land and a place full of red sand and short stubby trees. Silent skies. The undulating scorch of summer plains. Quiet, on the surface of things.
'But Elise wasn't from the Mallee, and she knew nothing of its ways.
'Discover the world of a small homestead perched on the sunburnt farmland of northern Victoria. Meet Elise, whose urbane 1950s glamour is rudely transplanted to the pragmatic red soil of the Mallee when her husband returns to work the family farm. But you cannot uproot a plant and expect it to thrive. And so it is with Elise. Her meringues don't impress the shearers, the locals scoff at her Paris fashions, her husband works all day in the back paddock, and the drought kills everything but the geraniums she despises.
'As their mother withdraws more and more into herself, her spirited, tearaway daughters, Marjorie and Ruby, wild as weeds, are left to raise themselves as best they can. Until tragedy strikes, and Marjorie flees to the city determined to leave her family behind. And there she stays, leading a very different life, until the boy she loves draws her back to the land she can't forget...' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
- Dyslexic edition.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Inner Worlds : Three Debuts about Female Experience
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 419 2020; (p. 29-30)
— Review of Melting Moments 2020 single work novel ; The Light After the War 2020 single work novel ; Wearing Paper Dresses 2019 single work novel'Three recent début novels employ the genre of the Bildungsroman to explore the complexities of female experience in the recent historical past.'
-
Inner Worlds : Three Debuts about Female Experience
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 419 2020; (p. 29-30)
— Review of Melting Moments 2020 single work novel ; The Light After the War 2020 single work novel ; Wearing Paper Dresses 2019 single work novel'Three recent début novels employ the genre of the Bildungsroman to explore the complexities of female experience in the recent historical past.'
Awards
- 2020 shortlisted Indie Awards — Debut Fiction
- Mallee, North West Victoria, Victoria,