'It is 1941. Eighteen-year-old Ruby leaves behind the family farm, her serious mother and roguish father, and heads for Adelaide. After a brief courtship, she enters into a hasty marriage with a soldier about to go to war – who returns a changed man.
'In this absorbing novel, Anna Goldsworthy recreates the world of Adelaide half a century ago, and portrays the phases of a woman’s life with intimacy and sly humour. We follow Ruby as she contends with her damaged husband and eccentric in-laws. We see her experience motherhood and changing social circumstances, until, in a moving twist, a figure from the past reappears, to kindle a late-life romance.
'In her captivating fiction debut, Goldsworthy evokes a woman’s life in a pre-feminist world. In this tender, funny book, she combines an Austenesque wit with Alice Munro’s feeling for human complexity.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
'Goldsworthy has captured the mores of the postwar period to perfection.'
'Three recent début novels employ the genre of the Bildungsroman to explore the complexities of female experience in the recent historical past.'
'Three recent début novels employ the genre of the Bildungsroman to explore the complexities of female experience in the recent historical past.'
'Goldsworthy has captured the mores of the postwar period to perfection.'
