'Betty Birskys writes about the Lithuanian community in Brisbane with insight, affection and a strong sense of identification. This is a small ethnic group about whom very little has been written. Birskys' novel is a moving study of cross-culture marriage and migrant life in Australia where the author, using the device of a fictional memoir, constructs a very personal and poignant story. It succeeds where many other family memoirs fail because of the author's ability to both distance herself from the story and also to reach into its core. This novel tells a familiar but often untold urban story.' (Queensland Premiers Award Judges comments.)