The author of this novel carefully effaces herself from the very first page. In an unusual technique that grabs and holds the reader’s attention, her novel becomes an autobiographical work by one Hilary Mason, complete with a list of Hilary’s books on the page facing the introductory chapter. And Hilary has parts of herself she hides as well.
In her adulthood she never talks about her Sydney childhood, and the dreadful 1974 day on which her older sister, Elaine, vanished, with her remains found much later. Nor does Hilary divulge to other people the trauma of her mother dying from cancer and her father remarrying.
Hilary had always suspected Jack, her father’s godson, of being involved in her sister’s murder, and his threatening presence stays with her to the end of her story.
The reader’s heart aches for Hilary, as she is determined to make her way alone in the world, coping with bombshell revelations about her mother and sister along the way.
McLean … or Hilary … writes warmly about her Aunt Marge, keeper of some family secrets; and Lydia, a great friend who encouraged her to apply successfully for a writing fellowship in New York.
There is no conventional happy ending for Hilary. Just as she settles into love with a gardener in Canberra, tragedy strikes again.
There is a profound sense of reticence in this novel, with Hilary holding back from letting her memories and fears spill into her everyday life.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paula McLean is the immediate past Deputy Chair and Patron of the Stella Prize, and now a NSW Ambassador. She is on the board of the Country Education Foundation, a member of the She Gives Advisory Group and a trustee of McLean Foundation, which supports conservation, education, domestic violence and literature. She began the Nature Writing Prize, administered by The Nature Conservancy Australia. A former fiction and educational publishing editor,
Paula is also the author of Good Foods for Babies and Toddlers.
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