You may well know Indira Naidoo from TV and radio. Her latest book is a courageous and magical volume that is part memoir and part meditation. It explores love; the numbing intensity of loss; and the transformative power of nature to heal.
It begins with the story of three inseparable sisters: Indira, the eldest; Dreamcatcher and, the youngest sister, Stargazer. Their childhood living in five countries is adventurous, intensely colourful and relived with humour that only wild escapades and forays into forbidden sweets, stolen hairclips and unlawful drives can be. This joyful special bond is abruptly stolen when Stargazer dies at 48. The grief that Indira experiences is compounded by the nature of her sister’s tragic death by suicide. She asks, ‘Could I have prevented it somehow? I was the older sister. I was supposed to look after her.’
This intimate journal beautifully captures the solitary and gaping nature of grief. It charts a journey that starts in solitude and communion with a huge old Moreton Bay Fig tree that stretches up to the stars and whose canopy embraces Indira’s grief. It’s here that Indira’s story begins to unfold as chapter by chapter she looks to nature for answers.
Indira’s candid exploration of the various stages of grief, eventual clarity and acceptance of death through her personal story is powerful. There is strength in fragility and she shows us that we need not look further than nature – in a feather or puddle, an ant’s nest or a cloud – to find a loss doesn’t mean the end.
Reviewed by Karen Williams
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Indira Naidoo is one of Australia’s most popular broadcasters and authors.
During her 30-year award-winning journalistic career, she has hosted and reported for ABC’s Late Edition nightly news and SBS’s World News Tonight. In 2017 she starred as a special guest presenter on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia.
Indira has also hosted three seasons of the SBS TV series Filthy Rich and Homeless and executive-produced the two live episodes.
She was the media manager at Choice and created the now annual Choice Shonky awards for the worst consumer products. She has also worked for the UN in Geneva.
Indira is an ambassador for Sydney’s homeless crisis centre the Wayside Chapel.
Her first book, the best-selling The Edible Balcony, was published in 2011 and The Edible City was published in 2015.
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