Tales of Suburban Castaways

"In these absorbing stories, Bel Vidal weaves dreams into real life with the eloquence of a seasoned storyteller."

Anne Marie Smith, Author of the memoir Pardon my French; and editor of Culture is, Australian Stories Across Cultures

A South American migrant makes headlines as the first Australian to die in the September 11 attacks, but his life achievements are lost in translation. An outsider crosses the bridge that separates 'us' from 'them' with the support of new friends. A hunchback discovers her unimaginable beauty. A fallen Master finds a path to redemption...

Bel Vidal's prose shines as she shares tales of love, loss, hope and strength, in this eclectic collection of fiction and non-fiction works written over the course of 25 years. Characters that range from real, ordinary beings to fallen angels, jump off the page to tell their stories.

Many of Bel's stories explore themes of belonging and identity, while others are enigmatic and fantastical. All are grounded in two overarching needs of humans: acceptance and love.

Allow yourself to be carried along on this journey of self-discovery, human frailties, hard truths and transformation.

Most people cannot write well in their native language, let alone in an adopted one. In this anthology, Bel Vidal's beautiful prose shines as she shares stories of love, loss, hope, acceptance, and strength, in a series of short non-fiction and fiction stories. Her non-fiction stories are well-researched and fascinating, while the fiction stories are varied and sometimes enigmatic, but also captivating in their poetic quality.

Bel Vidal is the pen name of a Bolivian-born writer who has called Sydney home since 1988.Her works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been widely published, both in English and Spanish, under her pen name, her real name, and other pseudonyms. She was the recipient of an Australia Council of the Arts (now Creative Australia) grant to publish a bilingual collection of poems and short stories, Arcoiris de Sueños/Rainbow of Dreams (Cervantes Publishing, 1993). An early draft of Bel's debut novel, Exuberance, was shortlisted for the Varuna-Harper Collins award for manuscript development, and was awarded the five-day Varuna Awards Residential Masterclass. Exuberance was independently published in 2023, followed by a collection of fiction and non-fiction short stories, Tales of Suburban Castaways, in 2024. Bel is employed as a communications specialist in the not-for-profit sector. Outside work, she is a mental health advocate, book and art lover, film buff, hiker, traveller, blogger, and firm believer it is never too late to start something new.

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