AUGUST 2017 AWW.COM.AU 175
CONGRATULATIONS to Mirella Palma from Karrinyup, WA, winner of the June issue AWW Book Club competition who wins
a copy of Dear Banjo by Sasha Wasley. “If I could write to anyone in history I would write to Mussolini,” writes Mirella. “My
husband’s grandmother was his tarot card reader in Rome while he was ruling. I would ask him what she read in his cards.”top-line, it’s because revealing too much will
ruin the ending and the clues are in the detail.
It is the strength of the characterisation of
the central duo that keeps you hooked to their
life story, and when the ending is revealed
it hits you in the pit of your stomach.
“The ending came to me in a flash of
inspiration one day – which is a rare and
marvellous occurrence,” Julie Cohen tells
The Weekly. “I didn’t write it to shock,
though I hope readers will be surprised.
I want readers to get to the end of the book
and have to think hard about their own
definitions of love, and everything they think
they knew about the story they’ve just read.”ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julie Cohen
Born in Philadelphia, USA, in 1970, Julie Cohen
was raised in a small town in the Maine woods.
“I’ve spent every single summer of my life at
my family’slittle cottage at the lake, which my
great-grandfatherbuilt and where my parents
met,” she says. Julie wrote her first novel about
a girl wizard at age 11 – “100 handwritten pages
with hand-drawn maps and calligraphy chapter
headings. I’ve still got it,”she laughs. After studying
English Literature at Brown University in the US
and Cambridge University in the UK, she became a
school teacher and started writing novels. Getting
published was tough but she persevered and her
books are now translated into 15 languages, with
sales of close to a million worldwide. Julie currently
lives in England’s south “with my husband, our son
and our dog”, and is working on “a novel about how
one person’s life can affect a whole community”.Together
by Julie Cohen, Hachette.
Robbie and Emily are the married couple
everyone hopes they will grow into;
still deeply in love in their autumn years,
respectful, best friends and inseparable. Right
from the first page of this engrossing novel
there’s a sense of total union, a togetherness
that goes way beyond companionship: “her
body touched his, her backside snug against
his hip, her ankle curled around his so toes
rested against the sole of his foot.”
Robbie is a retired boat builder and Emily
a respected obstetrician. Their son Adam
is married with three children and all are
together celebrating, eating cake for his
parents’ wedding anniversary. “We eloped,”
Emily tells her inquisitive granddaughter.
“I’m a born romantic,” explains Robbie.
It seems too good to be true ... and it
is, for very quickly we realise Robbie is
losing his memory. Yet this is not a novel
about Alzheimer’s, though it is about the
importance of memories, especially to this
couple, and why keeping a firm hand on the
past is crucial to their existence. Immediately
we’re intrigued.
Told in reverse, author Julie Cohen begins
with Robbie leaving that snug warm marital
bed and Emily behind him, and penning a
letter to explain actions that will break his
wife’s heart. From here she cleverly drip feeds
the back story of this monumental and
extraordinary love. It’s a tale that goes back
54 years and involves fevered family tension
and deep, dark secrets. If this sounds a little
Re ading room
Does love conquer all? This tale about a dangerous
passion challenges prejudices, writesJuliet Rieden.
For your chance to winSecrets of the Springsby Kerry McGinnis, thanks to Penguin Random
House, simply tell us in 25 words or less what your favourite thing to do in the country is
and why. Send your entry with your name, address and contact email or phone number to
[email protected] or write to Book Club competition, GPO Box 4178,
Sydney, NSW 2001. The competition closes at 11:59 AEDT on August 9, 2017. See page 198 for Bauer Media’s
Privacy Notice and the full terms and conditions.WIN
THIS
BOOK!Look out
for The
Australian
Women’s Weekly
Great Read
sticker in your
local bookstore.