AustLit

'Love, marriage and divorce are universal themes that unite and divide families in the urban forest. In Melbourne, early during the second half of the 20th Century, The Shorman and Carlister families are both facing the pressures of societal change: older family males still believed in the patriarchal past while young adult offspring are finding new freedoms at university and beyond. When Mim Shorman returns from an overseas trip she was not, as expected, accompanied by her adopted daughter Eliane. Why, she declines to elaborate and to help control her emotions immerses herself in her painting. Around her, family members react to her failure to renew her role as put upon wife and mother. Paul Carlister is going out with Barbi Shorman, His brother Mark, seeking work overseas, has left his wife Ruth and baby Rollo behind. The highly intelligent Sims Flavin, who boards in Richmond with “old digger” Sarge, seems apart, or perhaps above it all. Or is he? Barbi’s twin sister Henrietta seems intent on marrying a rather handsome young man with few prospects. But these relationships are put to the test and when a letter arrives from Paris new stresses appear. There has already been one divorce and a shipboard romance. Is another divorce to happen? No fault divorce, after all, is still some years away. And what secret lies behind Mim Shorman’s special relationship with Eliane? As the details emerge and tragedy strikes old Sarge, Paul has an accident and relationships are rearranged. At least the young adults can go forward unbound by the societal constraints of the past.'   (Publication summary)