Cirrus@Austlit

'In this beautifully constructed Russian doll of a novel, two Australian women leave their homeland in search of a room of their own in which to forge their art. Stella Bowen studies painting in London where she meets, among other literati, wild Ezra Pound, and the bearlike, charming Ford Madox Ford with whom she lives in the countryside, has a child and enters the glittering life of Paris in the 1920s where she struggles to survive and paint, and where the likes of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas and Jean Rhys dance in and out of her life.

'A century later, Neve leaves Australia for life in Paris with the suave Antoine to write her novel on Bowen’s life. Each woman is captured by love and confronted with betrayal and obstacles in the pursuit of her art.' (Publication summary) 

'Living alone in the Blue Mountains, baby-boomer Kate Ward is estranged from her adult son. Where did it all go wrong?

'She decides to return to Salt Pan Creek, the place of her childhood in post-war Sydney suburbia. It's here that she must come to terms with a history that's far greater than her own personal past.

'While All the Lives We've Lived takes us back to relive the fifties, sixties and seventies, it's Kate's willingness to confront the truth of her teenage relationship with Gary, an indigenous boy, that reflects Australia's need to face its collective colonial past.

'Blending fictional and historical characters and events, this deeply moving novel of interconnected stories is ultimately about storytelling itself: about our need to tell them; about the ones we remember; the ones we value; and the ones we distort because the truth may be too hard to bear.'   (Publication summary)