AustLit

'Eileen Finlay has given us another family saga, though only embracing three generations. We meet people of all classes, and as is usual with her novels we find much laughter intermingled with our tears.The pioneer Blyth family are drawn from life and their fine house may be easily recognised.

'We are taken to orchard country and a cool-store tragedy and learn how an embittered, sinister man can spoil the lives of other people.

'The story of Tania Hilton, lowly born, runs through the book. She goes seeking in the wilderness for she knows not what until youth has passed her by, and she finds at last what she seeks at the age of 37.

'The amusing pictures of Gloria, Daphne, and Ma Hilton are finely drawn, and true to back-stage life and we can learn much from their worldly wisdom.

'This book is crammed with people, each forming a link in the chain of Tania's life: and as we read we feel the natural atmosphere of everyday country life as it is lived in Australia by rich and poor. The self-sacrificing devotion and loyalty of Tania Hilton to a large family rightly earned for her the peace and joy that came to her in later life, when she was no longer Crying in the Wilderness.' (Publisher's blurb)