AustLit

'Thirty-five-year-old Wren Fox lives with his mother, Bernie, in a run-down house in country Victoria. They've always led a simple life, unperturbed by the knowledge that others find them eccentric. When Wren stumbles across an explicit blog page belonging to his employer's sister, Madeline Stanley, his straightforward view of life is thrown into turmoil. Wren quickly becomes obsessed with Madeline's two online journals and on discovering that a stalker is involved, finds himself behaving in unexpected ways. With the knowledge he has covertly gained, he is eventually forced out of his shell and into action in ways he never could have anticipated - ways that will decide his own future and that of the Stanleys. ' (Publisher's blurb)

'For successful artist Mallory Smith, painting has always been an escape - from his lonely childhood, his turbulent relationships with his three wives, and the birth of a daughter with a severe disability. But art is failing him now. Since being diagnosed with a terminal illness only two things matter: finishing the mudbrick house he started, and getting to know Em, the enigmatic young woman who must surely be the daughter he has not seen in twenty years.

As Mallory traces his colourful past, we see him through the eyes of the women in his life. His ex-wife Margaret challenges him to face his future, while his much younger wife Sueyen buries herself in her work to escape their failing marriage.

The Pepper Gate is a compelling and unpredictable novel about building relationships and deconstructing the past.' (Publisher's blurb)