One of the Wattle Birds Jessica Anderson 1994

Dustjacket synopsis:
"On the surface, nineteen-year-old Cecily Ambruss and her lover, Wil, are preparing for university exams in a calm and ordered fashion. But Cecily is haunted by questions about her mother and sets out to wring answers from those who knew her.

"Her journeys to her aunt and uncle, conversations with her grandmother, even a visit to the father she has never met, fail to resolve her quest. Cecily is too volatile and angry to admit that there is no simple solution, but she does at last reach a comprehension of the alchemy by which we make a truthful fiction of a life.

"In this sparkling novel, Jessica Anderson presents a magnificent blend of character, ideas and very human deception."

First Paragraph:

Whenever I look up, I see Wil getting on with it.

This morning, when the drilling started, he jumped up and said, 'Right That's it. Let's go to the library where we can get on with it.'

They are renovating a bathroom and kitchen on the second floor of our crummy old building. when they started, yesterday, Wil went up and talked to the two renovators, then came back and said with deadly calm, 'There goes the whole of stu-vac.'

So he stuffed his work in his bag and went to the library, and I stayed home and put silicone plugs in my ears, and a headset on, and read Malory.

Muffled like that, the drilling turned out to be helpful. It supplied the underlying distraction I need to help me concentrate.

From the Penguin paperback edition, 1994.

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Last modified: December 24, 2001.