AustLit

This is the third novel in Laura Todd's trilogy, which began with A Place Like Home: Growing Up in the School of Industry, 1915-22 and was continued in Freshwater. Isabelle resumes the story in 1928. Isabelle Laverni leaves her home in Harbord to establish some independence.But things go badly wrong while working in the Blue Mountains. She is dismissed and must fend for herself and eventually her baby, born at Bethel Private Hospital for unmarried mothers.

Out in the world with a young child, Isabelle suffers much abuse and exploitation, but remains determined to re-establish connection with her family, to escape the clutches of Miss Void and settle safely with her child. (Publisher's blurb, back cover).