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In middle-class 1980s Sydney, young Ben is captive to his mother’s secrets of violence, sexual predation, and alcoholism, but confused by her public mask of deep religiosity. Will he ever be free of her? Is suicide the only way out?
Through his close friend and neighbour, Prue Goldberg, and her holocaust survivor parents, he experiences a bigger, richer world of family and culture, beyond the fundamentalist church that has always ruled his life.
When he finally escapes his mother and the church, Ben’s journey is typical of survivors whose childhood boundaries have been violated. His relationships are sabotaged by self-doubt, self-harm and substance abuse and then, at twenty-five, his mother’s will reveals that he was never who he thought he was.
His new journey of self-discovery takes him through love and loss and, finally, love again.
This is a tale of hope that shows that breaking a child’s spirit is not the final call if the right kind of love is available.
Author: Lindsay Duncan
Paperback Published 16 September 2022