AustLit

'HETTY and Ness have been best friends since childhood. Hetty is captivating, the life of the party. Ness is a wallflower, hopelessly in love with her.

'Leaving Melbourne to live abroad, they take a room in a share house of creatives in Toronto’s student quarter. Hetty disappears into barkeeping and nightlife, while Ness drifts aimlessly.

'But when Ness finds Faith in the art gallery, an intense affair develops. With friends and a job, at last her life starts to make sense. And Hetty’s starts to fall apart, a mess of bad drugs and bad men.

'As winter freezes the lakeside city, the dark undercurrents of Hetty’s character—abusive relationships, dangerous obsessions—become stronger. Ness may lose the person she loves more than anyone else in the world.

'Cherry Beach is a revelatory and beautifully written story of friendship and desire.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.