Blackwattle Road

A powerful novel about a difficult matriarch, Blackwattle Road explores some of the ways we manipulate family connections and use them to control and destroy people's lives. Liona Trelelen's life centres on her longterm lover, Angus, and her godson Curtis; and she deceives Curtis into believing that she and Angus are his true parents, whereas Curtis is the child of a Middle Eastern immigrant who deserted his ship in 1907, then endured the ostracism of being an outsider in a small mining town in the Hunter Valley. Curtis suffers because of his constant mistrust and indecision and his rejection…