by Frances Itani (2009)
The new novel from the award-winning author of Deafening is a poignant exploration of one eighty-year-old life, as its heroine lies at the bottom of a ravine where she has crashed en route to visit the queen. Born the same day as Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Canadian Georgina Danforth Witley is one of ninety-nine privileged Commonwealth subjects invited to an eightieth birthday lunch at Buckingham Palace. All she has to do is drive to the airport and board the plane for London. Except that Georgie drives off the road, her car plunging into a thickly wooded ravine. Thrown from the car and unable to move, she must rely on her no-nonsense wit, her full store of family memories, and a recitation of the bones in her body -- a childhood exercise that reminds her she is still alive. As Georgina lies helpless, she reflects on her role as a daughter, mother, sister, wife, and widow -- on lost loves and painful secrets -- offering a whimsical and profound insight into the life of one ordinary woman who, while drawing on her instincts to survive, asks herself: what has it all amounted to?
Marcia Willett
She was one of the world's leading ballerinas, until a tragic accident forced Mim to give up dancing. A friend who ran a stage school persuaded Mim to join the business. Mim accepted the offer when it was agreed that the dancing classes would be Mim's own special province. Now, nearly twenty five years later, history is repeating itself.
Denise Robertson
"Ben Webster appears to have it all - health, wealth, a beautiful wife and a thriving business. In reality, his wife is unfaithful and predators are circling the profitable firm that he heads. And then his beloved grandmother summons him. She tells him that the family business has been built on the theft of the birthright of three children orphaned during the war. 'Find them, ' she says. 'I can't die with what your grandfather did on my conscience.' But where does he begin, and how? As Ben delves into the past he finds relief from his own troubles and, for a moment, the thrill of an affair is a welcome distraction. Sooner or later, however, he must not only deal with the present, he must redress the wrongs of the past."--Publisher's description.
Suzanne Goodwin
Catherine and Sara share the same father—and that is all they share. Catherine, a reserved English aristocrat, grew up at her family's country estate in the years before the First World War. Sara, a passionate red-headed beauty, lived with her selfish socialite mother in a marble palace on the French Riviera. Catherine is a confirmed virgin; Sara made love to a stranger to celebrate the Armistice. Within the rapidly-changing world of between-the-wars England, the two strong personalities clash in a struggle to control the international auction-house founded by their father. It's a time of new freedoms for women - in enterprise and in sexuality. But sex doesn't guarantee romantic involvement, and a "financially wise" marriage can bring both profit and loss. Readers of Suzanne Goodwin's earlier novels Cousins and Sisters will welcome Daughters with the knowledge that they're in the hands of a master storyteller with a special insight on the modern woman's heart.
Mark Neilson
Sophie Hargreaves hopes to repair her shattered family by buying a rundown vineyard in Piedmont and bringing everyone together again. Sadly, her attempt fails and she's left struggling to bring in the grape harvest on her own before she faces ruin. Then, just as she begins to lose hope, Sophie finds help from an unlikely source: three strangers fleeing a storm and its flooding. They find themselves wrestling with the problems of saving the grapes and making the ancient winery viable. Unexpectedly, Sophie finds a new life in the remote wine valleys of Northern Italy.