I have read Belinda Alexander’s other novel, Wild Lavendar, and enjoyed it and I picked this one up last time I was in Australia. I started it but struggled with the first couple of chapters and left it for a while. Having picked it up again, I was quickly engrossed. The story is of two sisters who live in Prague but are forced to leave for Australia after their mother is murdered. The storyline unfolds there with love, pregnancy, racism, career choices, mental illness, family debate, strange neighbours and ill children in a 1920s setting and all of the social requirements of that age. It is a saga-style book but very readable and the story progresses well and covers some important issues. I enjoyed reading it.
Filed under: Recent Reads, fiction
