E. J. Williams
Author of Contemporary Fiction
Bradley Johnson stands outside an antique book shop in Cambridge, England. Weighed down by life’s expectation, he trudges through each day, detached from his father and siblings: drifting further from his wife and the person he once was.
Gordon Andrews is the former head of English at Cambridge University and the owner of the book shop. He has done his best to move on from a life dotted with sadness, but by chance he meets Bradley, and their families intertwine across two countries to raise secrets from the past.
Success as a Sydney-based lawyer has given Gabi Johnson everything she needs, except the courage to face her father as her true self. Outwardly confident, she is the person that holds the Johnsons’ together by the barest thread; her strength drawn from her mother Emily, the woman she always wanted to be.
The death of their father brings the siblings together in Australia for the funeral and moves the middle-aged Johnsons’ towards reconciling their pasts and confronting what they have become.
Jenny is a single mother. She has raised her children as best she could while carrying a secret that grew harder to tell with each day that passed. Enough of those days passed where it became impossible, and then unnecessary, to reveal what had been thrust upon her all those years ago: she had almost forgotten herself.
As adults, Jenny’s children are polar opposites; one craves success, the other lives from one day to the next.
As a family, they will be confronted with truths that will weaken and then galvanise. Tragedy strikes, but the suffering is endured, and bonds will be forged that will heal what were their weakest moments.