'A beautician smuggles her family out of communist Hungary; a man steps off a train and gets his life on track; a Pitjantjatjara woman guards the secrets of a sacred women's Dreaming. In a conversation spanning generations, young writers from around the country sketch the extraordinary lives of ordinary and elderly Australians they find inspirational.

Seventeen authors were selected from more than a hundred submissions (collected through the network of the National Young Writers' Festival). They range from Vogel award-winning novelist Danielle Wood from Tasmania, twice named Young Novelist of the Year by the Sydney Morning Herald; to fourteen-year-old Perth schoolboy Nicholas Dyer. Each profile is accompanied by moving black-and-white portraits by Sydney photographer Oliver Strewe.

Lines of Wisdom is a heart-to-heart between people at opposite ends of the path of life. Evocative and engaging, sincere and irreverent, it provides a gentle mediation on the march of time and on the history of Australia itsel.' (Sourc: Publisher's website)