Free shipping on orders over $99
An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb

An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb 1

by Louise Wolhuter
Paperback
Publication Date: 30/11/2022
5/5 Rating 1 Review

Share This Book:

18%
OFF
RRP  $34.99

RRP means 'Recommended Retail Price' and is the price our supplier recommends to retailers that the product be offered for sale. It does not necessarily mean the product has been offered or sold at the RRP by us or anyone else.

$28.95
or 4 easy payments of $7.24 with
afterpay

Jessie Else disappeared the summer the Lambs came to Magpie Beach.

Not that the two events were connected at all, in reality; only in my own head, in my own world. They marked for me the end of a certain quiet time and the start of a more complicated living.

Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town, full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town—and partly because their neighbours treat them with such suspicion.

When Jessie Else, all of 9 years old, goes missing—it’s easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspects—but what they didn't realise is that Jessie’s disappearance is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon all those secrets they’ve been trying to hide are going to be uncovered—and nothing will ever be the same again.

ISBN:
9781761150913
9781761150913
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
30-11-2022
Publisher:
Ultimo Press
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
304
Dimensions (mm):
234x153mm
Louise Wolhuter

Louise Wolhuter grew up in southern England, moved to Queensland, before settling in Perth to raise a family.

She currently works an Education Assistant in a pre-primary classroom, which leaves her early mornings, weekends and school holidays to write.

This item is In Stock in our Sydney warehouse and should be sent from our warehouse within 1-2 working days.

Once sent we will send you a Shipping Notification which includes online tracking.

Please check the estimated delivery times below for your region, for after your order is despatched from our warehouse:

ACT Metro  2 working days

NSW Metro  2 working days

NSW Rural  2 - 3 working days

NSW Remote  2 - 5 working days

NT Metro  3 - 6 working days

NT Remote  4 - 10 working days

QLD Metro  2 - 4 working days

QLD Rural  2 - 5 working days

QLD Remote  2 - 7 working days

SA Metro  2 - 5 working days

SA Rural  3 - 6 working days

SA Remote  3 - 7 working days

TAS Metro  3 - 6 working days

TAS Rural  3 - 6 working days

VIC Metro  2 - 3 working days

VIC Rural  2 - 4 working days

VIC Remote  2 - 5 working days

WA Metro  3 - 6 working days

WA Rural  4 - 8 working days

WA Remote  4 - 12 working days

 

Express Post is available if ALL items in your Shopping Cart are listed as 'In Stock'.

Reviews

5.0

Based on 1 review

5 Star
(1)
4 Star
(0)
3 Star
(0)
2 Star
(0)
1 Star
(0)

1 Review

“We all carry secrets. Some we are given for safekeeping, wrapped in velvety trust. Some we have only an idea of: a glimpse of something like a sock beneath a washer, a look between people who should not be looking, whispers overheard, words torn from pages. They are pebbles in our pockets, and those we bury deepest are our own. Things we choose never to tell, pushed out of sight but never far from mind, and worried smooth by memory.”

An Afterlife For Rosemary Lamb is the first novel by Australian author, Louise Wolhuter. When twenty-year-old Rosemary Lamb and her husband Eddie move to the fringes of their coastal Queensland hometown, Winifred, a little place called Magpie Beach, there are two women living lonely existences nearby.

When Meg Cooper lost Sonny thirteen years earlier, she retreated into herself. She’s still grieving, just her and the cat keeping to their van and lean-tos and garden, except for her weekly shift at Winifred’s library. Without power, it’s a fairly primitive lifestyle but she survives on home grown fruit and vegetables. She watches with interest and a little apprehension as the Lambs erect their house.

On the other side of the headland, Englishwoman Lily tries to stay under the radar, determined to care for her husband herself, to uphold her wedding vow. But as Norman’s dementia worsens, it becomes more of a challenge. They’ve hidden themselves quite deliberately. She longs to be back in Yorkshire, but here in her isolation with the husband who has lost almost every trace of the man she married, she also craves company.

While Eddie, the butcher’s son who refused to follow in the family’s footsteps, carves exquisite rocking horses to sell, Rosemary works nights at the chocolate factory, and continues to wonder about the father her mother refused to identify. At Eddie’s urging, she insists that Meg joins her for the Tuesday cinema club.

After some months of weekly outings, they encounter Lily in the foyer of the Galaxy Cinema and, slowly, gradually, three women form a tentative friendship. For Lily it’s a break from Norman; for Meg, an antidote to her loneliness; and Rosemary enjoys the company of people who accept her as she is, without the judgement Winifred passes on her.

Winifred is a gossipy small town, and where there are mysteries and secrets held tight, there is speculation, rumour, “a thing tricky as butter to take back once spread”: Why did Sonny and Meg flee New Zealand? Where did Sonny go? Or was he dead, murdered by Meg, maybe? Who is Rosemary’s father really? And in the background of all that, the whole town wonders: who took nine-year-old Jessie Else back in February?

Just when Wolhuter has the reader feeling fairly cozy, she throws in torrential rain and flooding, and what that uncovers pulls the reader right out of their comfort zone with a couple of very dark and jaw-dropping turns.

This slow-burn story is told in three narrative strands, but one of those narrators is, perhaps, less reliable than the others. Wolhuter’s gorgeous descriptive prose really evokes her setting and the atmosphere, the smalltown mindset. Her characters are complex and intriguing, if not always likeable.

She has a marvellous turn of phrase: “Acting as if it was barely worth the bother was the coat she wore” and “‘We’re right, thanks,’ thrown over Lily’s shoulder like salt” and “Once he’d shuffled into the care of Eddie’s shadow, he settled like snow” are examples. “After Sonny left, I felt nothing for a long time but a cold vacuum of Doesn’t Matter” is another

Wolhuter gives her characters wise words and insightful observations: “Which is worse? I wonder still. To have love snatched away in one tight, violent second, or to have it dragged off slowly like a heavy carpet ruined in a storm?” This is a tale that really brings home to the reader how we only know a person from what they choose to present to us. Twisty, atmospheric and compelling, this is a brilliant debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Ultimo Press.

Recommended
Contains Spoilers No
Report Abuse