Books bring them together – but friendship will transform all of their lives. Five very different women come together in the Northern Territory of the 1970s by an exceptional new Australian author.
In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.
Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe’s designated successor but he has left the Territory – for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother’s place. But that doesn’t stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child. With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben’s English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.
Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick. Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.
If you loved The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society, The Little Coffee Shop Of Kabul and The Thorn Birds you will devour this story of five different women united by one need: to overcome the vast distances of Australia’s Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love.
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There were five of them. Five very different ladies with their very different lives. They were united by the endless skies and red earth of Northern Territory, love, grief, heartbreak, hope and dreams. They all met because of books but they got much more in return
The Fairvale Book Club is rather a Friendship Circle with five parts to it. Each part is colourful, exciting, inviting, amazing and very very earthy. Every single one of the ladies gets her own closure at the end. Some of them happy and wonderful, the rest peaceful, sad and quiet.
I guess, this is life.
The book is very comfy and cozy. Reading ladies’ stories one can feel welcome, feel belonging, feel ‘they are telling my story’. I enjoyed this read very much.
Svetlana Tishchenko 