When it Rains

A Memoir

Author: Maggie MacKellar

The heart-wrenching but triumphant story of rebuilding a life and a family

Written in lyrical, haunting prose, When it Rains is not only a meditation on grief and the vagaries of the human condition, it is a triumphant story of piecing back a life and a family, and moving forward, one step at a time.

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Summary

The heart-wrenching but triumphant story of rebuilding a life and a family

Description

The heart-wrenching but triumphant story of rebuilding a life and a family'My body, suddenly, carries two stories of loss ... One is easy for people to recognise. My mother died of cancer. I watched her age twenty-five years in eight weeks ... My other story marks me as different. It is more silent and more savage, it is not pure and no one knows how to approach it. Somewhere I lost my husband.'When Maggie's vibrant young husband, father to a five-year-old daughter and an unborn son, dies tragically, Maggie is left widowed and due to give birth three months later to their second child. Then her beloved mother, backbone of the family, mother to three children, grandmother to two, dies suddenly of aggressive cancer. In two short years, Maggie's life has shattered.After a year, she gives up trying to juggle single motherhood and the demands of an academic career and returns with her children to the family farm in central western New South Wales to take stock and catch a breath. The farm becomes a redemptive, healing place for Maggie and her children as they battle the heat and drought that only the Australian landscape can offer. She throws herself into the horses, sheep, ducks and chickens and slowly, finally, realises she has found a new shape for herself.Written by a brilliant new talent, WHEN IT RAINS is a meditation on grief and the vagaries of the human condition, and a stunning memoir about piecing back together a life, and moving forward, one step at a time.

Critic Reviews

“"Wrenching and eloquent." The Sydney Morning Herald”

An amazingly honest treatise not only on grief, but on human condition. --Canberra Times
Maggie MacKellar explores the landscape of pain bravely and with great effect. --Age
Succeeds masterfully. --Australian Book Review
The conviction in the power of hope and love found in this deeply moving memoir mustn't be missed. --Woman's Day
Wrenching and eloquent. --Sydney Morning Herald

About the Author

MAGGIE MACKELLAR is a writer and historian living on the east coast of Tasmania/lutruwita. She writes the much-loved newsletter The Sit Spot and is the author of five books, including When It Rains and Graft.