Cirrus@Austlit

In this beautifully written, quietly powerful book, Masters tells the story of Una and Enid Herbert, two lively young women who keep house for their brothers and widowed father in Wyndham, a tiny farming township south of Sydney, shortly after World War I. Enid is her father’s favourite, tending to the house and garden and priding herself on her domestic skills. Una, however, is different from her sister. Artistic and restless, she escapes from the confines of their farm whenever possible.

Their lives are focused on family matters until the young Reverend Colin Edwards moves into their district. Hungry for love, both sisters are drawn to him, and he to them. Wanting them both, he struggles to decide between the two, as they vie with increasing competitiveness for his affections. Edward’s choice does nothing to remedy the rapidly developing triangle of love and tension, but rather increases its intensity.

Loving Daughters, told in Masters’s spare and elegant prose, is a remarkable story of love, disappointment, frustration, and desire.