Author Description

"It's 1957 and after the death of her husband, pianist Ilona Talivaldis and her young daughter, Zidra, travel to the remote coastal town of Jingera in New South Wales, Ilona, a concentration-camp survivor from Latvia, is searching for peace and the opportunity to start anew. In her beautiful vine-covered cottage on the edge of the lagoon, she has plans to set herself up as a pionao teacher. The weeks pass, and slowly mother and daughter get to know the townsfold - including kind-jearted butcher George Cadwallader, who is forever gazing at the stars; his son, Jim, a boy wise beyond his years; Peter Vincent, former wartime pilot and prisoner-of-war; and Cherry Bates, the publican's wife who is about to make a horrifying discovery...For Jingera is not quite the utopia Ilona imagines it to be - and at risk is the one thing Ilona holds dear.