Pearl in a Cage (74 page)

 

Shireen Lolesi, the former wife of a high-profile rugby league player, has written a compulsively readable novel set in a high-testosterone world that pulsates with cocaine, binge drinking, groupies and sex. But just how much is fiction, and how much is fact . . .

 

Ilsa Evans

The Family Tree

 

Everybody has a book in them, or so the saying goes. For Kate – wife, mother, freelance editor and aspiring writer – it's just a matter of finding a spare five minutes, a little peace and quiet . . . and something to write about.

 

When her cousin Angie announces she has a room to let, Kate's spur of the moment decision to move temporarily out of the family home and in with Angie takes everyone, not the least her husband and teenage children, by complete surprise. Yet Kate's sure that in this room of her own, she'll finally be able to write the novel she's always wanted to.

 

But writer's block, dirty laundry and emergency babysitting duties all conspire against her. Amid the endless distractions, Kate is drawn into exploring the story of her family: her unconventional childhood with Angie on the family farm, her father's recent death, and the mystery behind Angie's enigmatic, absent mother.

 

As the months pass, Kate writes her novel. And while it will probably never be the bestseller she had envisioned, it's the story Kate weaves for herself and her family that is the ultimate triumph.