Meredith has formed a crochet group to help tick off her Social and Entertainment/Hobbies goals for the year. She also hopes it will help her make friends, as she finds friendship a tricky concept to navigate.
At the first meeting, she is joined by Claire, a mum of five who is desperate to complete a project; Yasmin, whose anxiety is preventing her from casting the first stitch on an outfit for her unborn baby; chatty Lottie; and Edith, who is driven by her handsome grandson, Luke. Meredith doesn’t like men, but before she knows it, he has joined the group, along with a sullen teenage girl, Harper.
Crochet is fun but the group doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Some Copeton residents are not happy about a proposal for a new mosque and resettlement of refugees in vacant retirement village units. Islamophobia rears its head in the town and Yasmin, who wears a hijab, becomes a visible target. The crochet group decides to fight back. But can a group of crafters, whose threads of friendship are new and fragile, take on an organised right-wing group and win?
This charming story is a fun read with a deeper message. Resistance has to start somewhere and small gestures can have a big impact. With engaging characters and some sharp observations about modern Australia, it’s both entertaining and enlightening.
Reviewed by Melinda Woledge
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kate Solly is a writer, mother of six and really quite good at getting the bubbles out of plastic book wrap. While most of her time is spent finding lost shoes and investigating what’s making the car smell bad, Kate frequently escapes to write entertaining things. She has penned many articles, columns and reviews for various publications, but when she is not writing, she enjoys starting crochet projects and never finishing them.
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