ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Maud Mulligan lives in a rat-infested and poverty stricken part of London, but she and her father are saving their hard-earned pennies to enable them to emigrate one day. When tragedy strikes, Maud gives up her last treasured possession to have her fortune told. This is a city where soothsayers of all sorts flourish, but the grandest of all are the Seers, and when Maud is taken off the streets by a wealthy industrialist's wife it turns out she is part of someone else's Seeing. So starts a fabulous adventure set in 1913, where striking workers, suffragettes, chemists and bakers all play their part. Equal parts gritty historical detail and imaginative world-building, this was an engrossing and magical read! Lindy
Which is more dangerous - a future you can't see - or one that you can?
Catherine Norton's first novel, Crossing, was joint winner of the Patricia Wrightson Prize in the 2015 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. It was also a CBCA Notable Book. She was born in the UK but grew up mostly in Adelaide, where she lives with her husband, children and a very lazy whippet called Archer. She has had dozens of jobs, including travel agent, cleaner, packer of tulip bulbs and novelty stationery, publishing assistant and academic, but she has only ever been fired from two of them. Writing novels is by far her favourite. You can find her online at www.catherinenorton.com.au.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Maud Mulligan lives in a rat-infested and poverty stricken part of London, but she and her father are saving their hard-earned pennies to enable them to emigrate one day. When tragedy strikes, Maud gives up her last treasured possession to have her fortune told. This is a city where soothsayers of all sorts flourish, but the grandest of all are the Seers, and when Maud is taken off the streets by a wealthy industrialist's wife it turns out she is part of someone else's Seeing. So starts a fabulous adventure set in 1913, where striking workers, suffragettes, chemists and bakers all play their part. Equal parts gritty historical detail and imaginative world-building, this was an engrossing and magical read! Lindy