Lillian’s Eden

A cool breeze made sails out of the lace curtains, lifting them up to reveal an expanse of blue that married the sky on the horizon line. She watched a ship move into the frame of the small window. It worked its way through white caps, like a sock poking up and down in the suds of her washtub. Her eyes took on a far off look as the Bex powder kicked in and made life tolerable. How different everything had turned out from what she had dreamed.

With their farm destroyed by fire, Lillian agrees to the demands of her husband to move to the coastal town of Eden, next door to his Aunt Maggie, to help look after her. Juggling the demands of caring for her children and managing two households, and stoically enduring her husband’s continued indiscretions, Lillian finds an unlikely ally in the feisty, eccentric Aunt.

With wonderfully drawn characters reminiscent of Ruth Park and Kylie Tennant, Cheryl Adam brings to life the realities of rural Australia in the 1950s and highlights the endless demands made on women like Lillian. Exquisitely capturing Australian life in the postwar years, this rich, raw novel is also a joyous celebration of family and friendship.

Lillian’s Eden shows that sometimes happiness can be found in the most unlikely of places.