Family Secrets
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4.0 • 103 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
"The doyenne of women's fiction" West Australian
From the bestselling author of A Month of Sundays, with new novel At the End of the Day out now.
When patriarch Gerald Hawkins passes away in his Tasmanian home, after ten years of serious illness, his family experience a wave of grief and, admittedly, a surge of relief. Gerald's dominating personality has loomed large over his wife, Connie, their children, Andrew and Kerry, and his sister Flora, for decades.
Connie, whose own dreams were dispensed with upon marriage, is now determined to renew her long friendship with Gerald's estranged sister, Flora. She travels to France where she finds Flora struggling to make peace with the past and searching for a place to call home. Meanwhile Andrew's marriage is crumbling, and Kerry is trapped in stasis by unfinished business with her father.
As the family adjusts to life after Gerald, they could not be more splintered. But there are surprises in store and secrets to unravel. And once the loss has been absorbed, is it possible that they could all find a way to start afresh with forgiveness, understanding and possibility?
PRAISE FOR LIZ BYRSKI
"Her plots and characters get stronger with each book" The Sydney Morning Herald
"Liz Byrski has a guaranteed cheer squad for her novels which champion...women taking charge of their life and growing old creatively" Daily Telegraph
Fans of Monica McInerney, Liane Moriarty and Joanna Trollope will love Liz Byrski.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Family dynamics are infinitely fascinating, and Australian novelist Liz Byrski has a keen eye for capturing their complexities and embracing their rough beauty. Family Secrets starts with a tense scene in which Connie’s two adult children, Kerry and Andrew, exhort their mother to move out of her rambling Tasmanian home just days after their father’s death. After years of caring for the gravely ill Gerald—and losing touch with her own needs—Connie has plans of her own. While Connie travels overseas, Kerry and Andrew embark on their own journeys of change. Byrski’s writing is intelligent, warm and full of strong emotions—but never saccharine.
Customer Reviews
Loved this story
Really great read couldn't put this one down really flowed
Family Secrets
Liz Byrski has an extraordinary ability to get inside the skins of not just one of her characters, but all of them. There are points of connection with so many of her characters, that whoever you are, you can identify with one of them. The power of a controlling person, beyond the grave, and how this power may be escaped, was for me the pivotal theme.
Having images from my life of both Brittany and Tasmania, for me the whole book exuded a multi textured palette on which the interplay of family secrets was brushed, in wide, vivid strokes. Whilst not shying away from thoroughly contemporary issues- marriage breakdown, gender confusion, treatment of refugees, mental illness, the important father- daughter, grandmother- granddaughter relationships- Ms Byrski avoids any subtle political or moralistic agenda by simply letting the characters express themselves.
At last, the family secrets are out. A fabulous read!
Roslyn Brown