From the outset, the novel captures the attention of the eye and the mind with its exquisite sensory observation, its breathtakingly exact expressions of feelings and sensations. — Australian Book Review
Are you still a liar? The crafting of those five words, even without dispatch, left her chilled.
Arctic Circle, 2012. On a lightless day at the end of the polar winter, landscape architect Evie Waddell finds herself exhuming the past as she buries Australian seeds in a frozen mountain vault - insurance against catastrophe.
Molong, 1953. Catastrophe is all seven-year-old Paddy O'Connor has known. Shipped from institutional care in London to an Australian farm school, his world is a shadowy place where lies scaffold fragile truths and painful memories.
Blue Mountains, 1962. From their first meeting as teenagers at a country market, Paddy and Evie grow a compulsive, unconventional love that spans decades, taking them in directions neither could have foreseen.
Set against the uneasy relationship society has with its own truth-telling in history, war and politics, Desire Lines is an epic story of love and the lies we tell ourselves to survive — and a reminder that even truths which seem lost forever can find their way home.
Meet Canberra local Felicity Volk in conversation with Louise Maher.
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Felicity Volk studied English literature and law at the University of Queensland before joining DFAT. After diplomatic postings in Bangladesh and Laos, and following the birth of her two daughters, she began writing for publication. An award-winning writer of short stories, her first novel, Lightning, was described as 'astonishing ... a propensity of storytelling talent, a bolt of brilliance'.
Louise Maher worked for many years in radio as a reporter, presenter and producer including 25 years with the ABC. Her current work includes a monthly podcast for the Australian War Memorial and a new audio project for the National Portrait Gallery. She recently completed a series of online video interviews with Canberra authors for Libraries ACT.