AustLit

'Men are hard to come by in the summer of 1945, and those that Dinah does find are stolen by Claudia with appalling regularity. Dinah and Claudia are young Adelaide women, teaming up to enjoy their independence in exotic Sydney during days drenched in sunshine and sentimental songs.

'Claudia is in love with Andrew who has a wife, a 'way of life', and a taste for cruelty. The victim of his sadistic irony is Dinah, who cannot understand why he is so anxious to find her a man. The reason, it transpires, is a practical one.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'For Tempe Caxton, glamorous television star, life has lost its lustre. Her son was killed in the war, her lover has walked out on her, her job is over and life seems meaningless. Suicide seems to promise an easy way out.

'While recovering from a failed attempt, she discovers a surprising secret in the pages of her dead son's diary - she has a granddaughter. And she soon finds out that her grandchild is in trouble - the family that have raised her are being unfairly evicted from the land they have held for four generations.

'Gradually Tempe is pulled into an alien world, with a new purpose; she is forced to rethink her long-held prejudices, fight for principles she has never before thought about, and find a new reason for living.' (From The House of Books imprint, Allen & Unwin website, 2012.)