AustLit

'Sydney, 1942

'Recently orphaned, Angel Martin moves into a boarding house populated by an assortment of eccentric and colourful characters. She’s befriended by the gregarious Winifred Varnham – a vision in exotic fabrics – and the numerically gifted Barnaby Grange. But not everyone is kind and her scrimping landlady, Missus Potts, is only the beginning of Angel’s troubles.

'Angel refuses to accept her fate and focusses her affections on her two maiden aunts. Despite their resistance, she is determined to forge a sense of belonging. Her visits to the aunts’ house on the Bay soon expand her world in ways she couldn’t have imagined.

'Elizabeth Stead brings her classic subversive wit and personal insight to this nostalgic portrait of wartime Sydney. In Angel Martin, she has created a singular and irrepressible character. A true original.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It's 1948 and Hanora Sparrow and her teenage daughters, Aria and Rosy, have fallen on tough times. With little more than the suitcases they carry and a few pounds between them, they must move to a housing commission camp on the outskirts of Sydney.

'While the prospect of life in a ramshackle tin shed is grim, these women soon learn that they are not alone. As they befriend other camp residents such as Mr Sparkle, who's had to leave his family behind to look for work in the city, Mr Gardiner, the war hero who never recovered, and the women of the laundry circle who are the eyes and ears of the camp, the Sparrow women discover that resilience and good humour might just be their salvation.

'In The Sparrows of Edward Street, acclaimed author Elizabeth Stead uses her clear eye and sharp wit to recreate a little known corner of Australian post-war history.' (From the publisher's website.)