I enjoyed this book a lot. It is set in Australia in the late 1990s and there’s an air of nostalgia about it – well, at least there was for me as I can clearly remember what life was like then.
Nadeem, a 40 something woman opens a shop in an Australian country town, moving there from the city following the end of a relationship. She employs a teenager to help her in the shop and meets her mother. Enter the love interest – Lorna, a 56 year old widow.
Their love story is the major feature of the book – but there is plenty of other interesting things happening in this book. Lorna’s business is sabotaged, there is a lot of growing things, Nadeem’s ex arrives, Nadeem’s father is an archaeologist and Egyptologist, who does not respect her sexuality and constantly tries to get her to meet a man. There is also a relatively small part of the book concerning a past life in Egypt where Nadeem and Lorna’s past lives were lived. I thought that segment was too small to be a boost to the story, but that is just my thought on it. A major plot line involves the homophobia abounding in rural Australia at the time – while it was interesting to see this, especially as we saw societal attitudes begin to change, it is also a reminder of how things used to be.
There is a line that made me laugh – and reminded me of a few people – She is more arse than class!
This was an easy read – well paced, interesting and I learnt things.