AustLit

'A new heartwarming novel set in 1950s Australia from bestselling author Katrina Nannestad

'Nettie Sweeney has a dad, three big sisters, a farm full of cows and a cat called Mittens. But it's not enough. She longs for a mother. One with a gentle touch and sparkles in her eyes. Instead, she has Aunty Edith with slappy hands, a sharp tongue and the disturbing belief that peas are proper food.

'When Dad marries Alice, all Nettie's dreams come true. The Sweeney home overflows with laughter, love and, in time, a baby brother. Billy. The light of Nettie's life.

'Then tragedy strikes. The Sweeney family crumbles. Nettie tries to make things right, but has she made everything so much worse?

'From multi-award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad comes a heartbreakingly beautiful and uplifting historical novel. Life and death. Weddings and flood. Coronation joy and post-war grief. Nettie Sweeney and her community experience it all. Together. With humour, kindness and love.' (Publication summary)

'The powerful new novel from master storyteller Katrina Nannestad.

'I don't want to remember the truck, or the night I was taken, or the family I left behind. I am not a sad Polish girl. I am a good and happy German girl.

'I am. I am. I am.

'It's the Second World War and Himmler's Lebensborn Program is in full flight when eight-year-old Zofia Ulinski is kidnapped by the Germans. She has blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the other Polish children taken from their families and robbed of their names, their language, their heritage.

'But when Zofia is adopted into a wealthy and loving German family, it is easier, it is safer to bury her past, deep down, so everything is forgotten. Until the Polish boy arrives.

'And the past comes back to haunt her.' (Publication summary)

'The right book might just change your life ...

'Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they're needed most ... the place where the perfect book will find its way home.

'Now Mim has arrived on a charming Greek Island, where a wedding is about to take place. Everyone is excited - everyone, that is, except the bride and groom.

'Mim knows they're here to help Anjelica, the bride. To stop the wedding. To set her free to follow her dreams.

'If only Anjelica would read the right book, the one Mim gave her. If only she would stop reading the wrong book.' (Publication summary)