Maggie Joel is a British-born writer currently living in Sydney. She has been writing fiction and non-fiction for over ten years and has had many short stories published including in Southerly, Overland, Canberra Arts Review and Westerly. The Past and Other Lies is her first novel.
This is a cleverly planned and executed first novel. Directed mainly at a female audience, it covers the complex personal lives of three generations of women-mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts and grandmothers-with a scattering of excellent male characters that complement and enhance all the female roles. The setting encompasses the post-WWI years through to the early 1980s. The impenetrable wall that exists between sisters Jennifer and Charlotte draws the reader in and keeps the pages turning. Silences follow whispered secrets, unresolved issues originate from jealousies and lies, and misunderstandings and coincidences flow throughout the novel. The story moves back and forth in time fluidly. The inexplicable is revealed through the events in other women's lives, connected to Jennifer and Charlotte. Through tantalising hints and innuendo, strings are left to trail in the background. These trailers are picked up at random and seamlessly joined to another event in another pair of women's lives. The tension is sustained with all that is left unsaid, rather than what is revealed, and this is where the strength of the book lies. This ensures riveting reading for even the most discerning booklover. Anastasia Gonis is a freelance writer and reviewer and former bookseller
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