This is an astonishing true story about two couples whose lives become chaotically twisted around foster children who are caught up in claims of both ownership and protection.
Michael and Mary Shelley are religious fanatics who lose each of their children from infancy through neglect, psychotic delusions, and acting aggressively towards welfare systems. Mary spends many stints in mental institutions while Michael is often arrested and does jail time for sending death threats to well-known identities in Australia and New Zealand. They will go to any lengths to reclaim their children, even kidnapping.
Lenore and Tom Blaine become the foster parents of three of the Shelley’s children. The hard-working Queensland publicans raise this foster family in a busy, loving, sporty atmosphere in many locations throughout Queensland. Lenore is a calm, wise mother and Tom is a proactive and positive father. Their combined parenting skills enable the three foster children to face the extreme challenges that confront them.
Lech, the youngest sibling and the only biological child of the Blaines, is the narrator. After extensive research including diaries, emails and interviews, he writes an honest, critical but loving account for his foster siblings, thus completing his mother Lenore’s desire to tell their story.
The unpredictable future of all these characters propelled me along. The pace increased by short sentences and the frequency of the incredible events. It’s both heart-breaking and darkly hilarious at times. I feel privileged to have shared in their pain and triumphs
Reviewed by Judith Grace
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORLech is author of the critically-acclaimed Car Crash: A Memoir. Car Crash was shortlisted for the National Biography Award and two categories at the Queensland Literary Awards. In October 2022, Car Crash was published in North America and the United Kingdom by Greystone Books.
Lech is also the author of two Quarterly Essays: Top Blokes and Bad Cop.
He was an inaugural recipient of a Griffith Review Queensland Writers Fellowship. In 2017, he won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. In 2019, he was awarded a Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Emerging Artist Fellowship.
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