AustLit

'The family secrets are only just beginning to unravel... 

'When her elderly mother is hospitalised after an accident, Vicki is summoned to her parents' isolated and run-down ranch home in Alberta, Canada, to care for her father. She has been estranged from her parents for many years (the reasons for which become quickly clear) and is horrified by what she discovers on her arrival.

'For years her mother has suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness but carefully hidden her delusions and unpredictable behaviour behind a carefully guarded mask, and has successfully isolated herself and her husband from all their friends. But once in hospital her mask begins to crack and her actions leave everyone baffled and confused ... and eventually scared for their lives.

'Meanwhile Vicki's father, who has been systematically starved and harruanged for years, and kept virtually a prisoner in his own home, begins to realise what has happened to him and embarks upon plans of his own to combat his wife.

'The ensuing power play between the two takes a dramatic turn and leaves Vicki stuck in the middle of a bizzare and ludicrously strange family dilemma. All this makes for an intensely gripping, yet black-humoured family drama which will leave you on the edge of your seat.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A conservative Catholic family in Queensland in 1974 is no place to be a pregnant teenager. With an authoritarian mother and facing enormous societal pressures, Mary must make a decision to save her future … but it is one that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

'After putting her baby son up for adoption, Mary tries to return to her old life and her studies to be a nurse but finds that she cannot escape thoughts of her son or feelings of guilt. The situation is made worse because her mother and family completely ignore what has happened to her; she cannot talk to anyone about how she feels. Even after travelling throughout remote Australia as a nurse and health advisor, and marrying and having two daughters, she feels incomplete and restless.

'Then the adoption laws regarding contact between birth mothers and their children are changed. She decides that the time might be right to find out if her son wants to meet her. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems and the quest to become a part of her son’s life, turns Mary’s life and world upside down all over again. ' (Publication summary)

'Green Vanilla Tea is a story of compassion and courage in the face of a deadly and little understood illness. Above all, it is a love story.

Marie Williams watches helplessly as an undiagnosable condition debilitates her husband, Dominic, in both body and mind. As the condition develops, the normally devoted family man and loving partner seems to disappear beneath an expressionless face and a relentless desire to walk and walk and walk at all hours of the day and night.

In a compelling story that spans both joy and sadness, Marie Williams writes about the bonds in her family, her sons’ love for their father, the spirit that sustains them all during the most testing of experiences and about the struggle they faced in dealing with the inexplicable.' (Publisher's blurb)

'My Life in a Pea Soup follows one mother's journey to reach her profoundly autistic daughter. Set against the backdrop of three countries - Sri Lanka, Bahrain and Australia - this book will appeal to anyone who has experienced heartbreak and then found a way to not only help themselves, but to help those dearest to them.

'The memoir chronicles Lisa's journey across many countries with her husband Michael and her daughter Sally. Lisa struggles to understand why her beautiful daughter does not act like other toddlers. Lisa and Michael experience cultural clashes and comical moments, all told through the lens of caring for a daughter who is different to the rest. Fighting for years to receive an official diagnosis for something they do not even have a name for, they are thrown headlong into a medicalised world they never knew existed.

'Baffled and bewildered, Lisa eventually embarks on a home-program for Sally that touches everyone in the family. Sally becomes much easier to manage while Lisa and her husband learn to navigate their way through the misty madness of the profoundly autistic world. By reaching Sally, they find the will and strength to help themselves. Their fogs lift and they discover the contentment and happiness that for so long had eluded them.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Marzipan and Magnolias is a charming, poignant and humorous story that traces Elizabeth Lancaster’s complex relationship with her somewhat eccentric mother Ruth. The relationship becomes even more complicated when Elizabeth refuses to acknowledge the early signs of her own incurable illness.

'Growing up in a family of boys, Elizabeth struggles to maintain her independence in the face of her mother’s intense love for her only daughter. When Elizabeth realises her dream of living overseas, Ruth pulls away emotionally, fearing that her daughter will never return. The tension between them deepens when Elizabeth falls in love and becomes engaged to Martin, who is German. Upon their eventual return to Australia, Elizabeth endeavours to break through the emotional barriers her mother has set up, as well as deal with the unwelcome onset of her own strange and frightening medical symptoms.

'Elizabeth Lancaster’s memoir is the winner of the inaugural Finch Memoir Prize. Selected for its literary quality, Marzipan and Magnolias was applauded by the judges for the author’s warm and humorous portrayal of a mother-daughter relationship.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.