In Lillians Eden, debut novelist Cheryl Adam takes the reader to Australian rural post-war life in the 1950s through the life of a family struggling to survive. With their farm destroyed by fire, Lillian agrees to the demands of her philandering, violent husband to move to the coastal town of Eden to help look after his Aunt Maggie. Juggling the demands of caring for her children and two households, and stoically enduring her husbands continued indiscretions, Lillian finds an unlikely ally and friend in the feisty, eccentric Aunt Maggie who lives next door. With wonderfully drawn characters reminiscent of Ruth Park and Kylie Tennant, Cheryl Adam shows us the stark realities of rural life behind the closed front doors and scented rose-filled gardens. She highlights the endless physical and mental demands on women like Lillian who have to grapple with the challenges of a newhomeland as well as never ending family responsibilities. This rich, raw novel pays homage to friendship and to the rural women whose remarkable resilience enabled them to find happiness in sometimes the most unlikely of places.
Cheryl Adam spent her childhood in rural Australia where her love of storytelling began. In adulthood, she travelled widely and lived overseas including in Africa and Europe. She has been evicted, kidnapped, abandoned, made homeless and discriminated against in her foreign adventures and this helped develop her deep empathy for the plight of immigrant women. Her concern for marginalised women and the environment took her to the Philippines where she taught homeless women how to create useable art from plastic bags developing a cottage industry. This experience inspired her to begin a creative writing course at Holmesglen TAFE in Melbourne. She is a proud grandmother and looks forward to writing more books.
"Lillians Eden is a garden full of stolen roses, family secrets and ambivalence. Its also home to one very attractive snake. I couldnt stop reading till I found who got cast out." Kristin Henry
"Lillians Eden opens a magic door into 1950s rural Australia. It is an elegantly-paced, colourful excursion down memory lane, complete with money worries, murky family secrets, an eccentric old aunt, an abusive, adulterous husband, and a feisty, courageous wife. Tragedy, comedy, farce, tenderness, triumph and grit." Carmel Bird
"Lillians Eden has a rather classic feel to it, harking back to life during the 1950s in rural Australia. In many ways, it is reminiscent of The Dressmaker and Cloudstreet, with its element of the ridiculous that only comes with this type of nostalgic Australian fiction. Unflinchingly honest, this is a novel that will have you in stitches from laughter while stealing your breath away with its emotional intensity...As far as debuts go, Cheryl Adam is off to an incredibly good start." Theresa Smith Writes, book reviewer & blogger
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