PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Pamela Robinson of inner-west Sydney misaddresses an email to her ex-husband, it hits the in-box of middle-aged teacher Chris in upstate New York. Pamela starts a correspondence with Chris, using her as a shoulder to cry on and a sounding board for her many insecurities; Chris is more circumspect and more formal in her replies - but as the emails go back and forth, there's plenty to read between the lines. Pamela is struggling to understand and manage her three teenaged sons, and to navigate life without the husband she left. Chris is caught between her awful mother's expectations of what a daughter owes, and trying to do the right thing by everyone around her, much to her disadvantage. As they continue to correspond, they exchange information, encouragement and hard common sense with each other. A very interesting novel of happenstance and chance, and of mismatched women finding friendship and support when they need it most. Lindy
'Two deep, bright, razor-sharp women at opposite ends of the earth tearing the band-aids off their souls, exposing truths and lies buried beneath marriage, motherhood and the sacrificial siege of mid-to-late-life maintenance. This is Susan Johnson at her most original, daring, bone-deep and deliciously raw. I fell, too, with aching heart and tickled rib, under the spell of this extraordinary book.' TRENT DALTON 'In a strikingly original reimagining of an epistolary novel, Susan Johnson creates two voices that echo and reverberate long after the final, heart-wrenching pages. Her best yet.' GERALDINE BROOKS An anguished email from Pamela Robinson in Australia to her ex-husband in Paris accidentally ends up in the inbox of New York State teacher Chrisanthi Woods. Chrisanthi is sympathetic to Pamela's struggles and the women begin to tell each other the stories and secrets of their lives.
Susan Johnson has been writing books since 1985, when she received the first of three grants from the Literature Board of the Australia Council which allowed her to write full time. Before that she was a journalist (starting at the Brisbane Courier-Mail and going on to work for such diverse publications as The Australian Women's Weekly, The Sun-Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald and The National Times). She's written ten books: eight novels; a memoir, A Better Woman; and a non-fiction book, an essay, On Beauty, published by Melbourne University Press. Several of her books have been published in the UK, the US, and in European translation. Susan has lived in the UK, France and Greece, but returned to Brisbane, Australia, in 2010. In 2019 she took off again to live on the Greek island of Kythera with her 85-year-old mother, Barbara. A memoir about their adventure is forthcoming.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Pamela Robinson of inner-west Sydney misaddresses an email to her ex-husband, it hits the in-box of middle-aged teacher Chris in upstate New York. Pamela starts a correspondence with Chris, using her as a shoulder to cry on and a sounding board for her many insecurities; Chris is more circumspect and more formal in her replies - but as the emails go back and forth, there's plenty to read between the lines. Pamela is struggling to understand and manage her three teenaged sons, and to navigate life without the husband she left. Chris is caught between her awful mother's expectations of what a daughter owes, and trying to do the right thing by everyone around her, much to her disadvantage. As they continue to correspond, they exchange information, encouragement and hard common sense with each other. A very interesting novel of happenstance and chance, and of mismatched women finding friendship and support when they need it most. Lindy
