We That Are Left by Lisa BigelowReleased: 1st September 2017
Published by: Allen and Unwin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: Publisher
Pages: 320
RRP: $29.99
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A moving debut novel about love and war, and the terrifyingly thin line between happiness and tragedy, hope and despair.
Melbourne, 1941. Headstrong young Mae meets and falls head over heels in love with Harry Parker, a dashing naval engineer. After a whirlwind courtship they marry and Mae is heavily pregnant when she hears that Harry has just received his dream posting to HMAS Sydney. Just after Mae becomes a mother, she learns Harry's ship is missing. Meanwhile, Grace Fowler is battling prejudice to become a reporter on the afternoon daily newspaper, The Tribune, while waiting for word on whether her journalist boyfriend Phil Taylor, captured during the fall of Singapore, is still alive.
Surrounded by their friends and families, Mae and Grace struggle to keep hope alive in the face of hardship and despair. Then Mae's neighbour and Grace's boss Sam Barton tells Mae about a rumour that the Japanese have towed the damaged ship to Singapore and taken the crew prisoner. Mae's life is changed forever as she focuses her efforts on willing her husband home.
Set in inner Melbourne and rural Victoria, We That Are Left is a moving and haunting novel about love and war, the terrifyingly thin line between happiness and tragedy, and how servicemen and women are not the only lives lost when tragedy strikes during war.
Melbourne, 1941. Headstrong young Mae meets and falls head over heels in love with Harry Parker, a dashing naval engineer. After a whirlwind courtship they marry and Mae is heavily pregnant when she hears that Harry has just received his dream posting to HMAS Sydney. Just after Mae becomes a mother, she learns Harry's ship is missing. Meanwhile, Grace Fowler is battling prejudice to become a reporter on the afternoon daily newspaper, The Tribune, while waiting for word on whether her journalist boyfriend Phil Taylor, captured during the fall of Singapore, is still alive.
Surrounded by their friends and families, Mae and Grace struggle to keep hope alive in the face of hardship and despair. Then Mae's neighbour and Grace's boss Sam Barton tells Mae about a rumour that the Japanese have towed the damaged ship to Singapore and taken the crew prisoner. Mae's life is changed forever as she focuses her efforts on willing her husband home.
Set in inner Melbourne and rural Victoria, We That Are Left is a moving and haunting novel about love and war, the terrifyingly thin line between happiness and tragedy, and how servicemen and women are not the only lives lost when tragedy strikes during war.
Guest Post from Lisa Bigelow - 'Searching for the Sydney'
I started writing this novel in 2003, partly in the hope of
prompting action on the search for the Sydney that had been recommended in a
Government enquiry four years earlier. Despite the enquiry recommending funding
for a search, nothing had happened. In 2007, shipwreck hunters announced that
they had found the wreck near the coast of WA. It turned out to not be true but
the spotlight was again on searching for the Sydney. When David Mearns
announced he was leading an expedition with WA Maritime museum and historians, like
many others, I spent three weeks following the news.
News that they had found the wreck, brought mixed feelings;
elation that the mystery had been solved, that the wreck was exactly where the
Germans had said all along and there was no evidence of Japanese involvement,
but disappointment that my grandmother hadn’t lived long enough to see the
mystery resolved. The video footage taken of the ship — which is now a war
grave and cannot be disturbed — is incredibly poignant; especially the image of
two leather boots lying on the sand just outside the hull.
Check out the other stops on the tour!
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