Misconceptions

Two friends - Ruth and Mim are in their early thirties, and have known each other since they were twelve. They met when Ruth went on holiday in Mim’s home town, on NSW’s Central Coast, the summer after Ruth’s mother died. Mim helped her through this, and they became ‘friends for life’. At the beginning of the book they are living together, with Ruth’s partner Simon. When Ruth becomes pregnant - after two years of desperate trying - Simon asks Mim to move out. Mim falls into free-fall panic while Ruth feels contentment and excitement about the new life that stretches before her. Ruth suffers a late-term miscarriage, which of course devastates her and Simon. The book deals with the death of Ruth and Simon’s baby very explicitly and explores the ramifications closely and intimately. Mim, for the first time since Ruth’s mother died, is not there. She has gone on a trip to Broken Hill, her mother’s home town to escape the feelings of being left behind her friend. Ruth tries to contact her friend but Mim appears to be uninterested. Ruth does not know that Mim, as she arrived in Broken Hill, discovers that she’s pregnant and has an abortion. Ruth grieves alone. Simon feels increasingly frustrated that his sadness is not taken into account by her. Ruth wants the support of Mim, her old friend, and is heartbroken by the silence. The baby’s death reverberates with her mother’s death and she feels as at sea as she did when she was twelvea This novel deals with difficult and dark themes but it draws to a realistic but positive conclusion. Misconceptionsis about women’s bodies, women’s choices. It’s about the sadness we feel when we lose those close to us, our mothers, our babies, and our friends.