AustLit

'As the day unfolds, lies are told, choices are revisited, family, friends and strangers are lost and found and Lilith Grainger discovers it's exhausting being Lilith Grainger. It is Tuesday May 15 and accidental housewife Lilith Grainger wakes to find herself in a photograph on the front page of the newspaper, in a place she shouldn't be, in a world her privileged family knows nothing about. The Unknown Woman is told over one day. A Tuesday. At the centre of the novel is 44 year old Lilith Grainger a former actuary who gave up work to look after her two children. It was meant to be for a year or so, but that year or so has turned into 10. She has a lovely, funny husband Bernie who works as a lawyer. Two children, Olivia (14) and Daniel (11) a father in a nursing home, a high profile CEO brother who has just been accused of sexual harassment at work, a neighbour who is getting under her skin (some may say she is becoming obsessed by her) and a mother-in-law coming for dinner. Told in alternate chapters from the point of view of Lilith Grainger and the people she has contact with that day. Like Lilith, everyone has their own little story. Lilith's relationship with her selfie obsessed 14-year-old daughter, her overweight son, her good husband who works long hours, her convenience friend Nikki, her mother-in-law Garland who has launched a successful career as a sculptor at 63 are all laid bare. The Unknown Woman is a portrait of a woman who doesn't know who she is anymore and a portrait of modern life.' (Publisher's blurb)