The Secret World of Connie Starr

Connie Starr was always a difficult child. Her mother knew as soon as Connie entered the world that day in Ballarat in 1934 and opened her lungs to scream, there was more chaos in the world than before and it wouldn’t leave until Connie did. But if Connie is difficult she is also different. From the safety of a branch high in her lemon tree where she speaks to angels, she sees the world for what it is – a swirling mass of beauty and darkness, of trauma and family, of love and war and truth and lies – lies that might just undo her and drive her to a desperate act.This ambitious, complex and insightful novel intertwines numerous stories of lives from before World War II and beyond, recreating with intimacy and breadth a world that is now lost to us. This audiobook is a brightly coloured patchwork quilt of everything from shoes to polio, lemon trees to rivers, death to life that melds into one beautiful, luminous work of art.

'The Secret World of Connie Starr will set the literary firmament ablaze. This brilliant, quintessentially Australian ode to difference, transcends time and place – it's an achingly lovely tale that shines long after the last page.' -- Karen Brooks, author of The Good Wife of Bath
'A perfect novel, poetic, evocative and hopeful. Your heart will break and then heal for Connie Starr.' -- Victoria Purman, bestselling Australian author of The Nurses' War

Robbi Neal's first book Sunday Best, a memoir was developed as part of the HarperCollins/Varuna awards program and published by HarperCollins in 2004. After Before Time, which told stories of indigenous life in a remote community, was published in 2016. The Art of Preserving Love, a story that spanned 25 years from 1905 to 1930 was published in 2018 under the pen name Ada Langton. Robbi also paints and is currently working towards an exhibition scheduled for 2022 at Redot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore. Fiona Macleod is a gifted actor and narrator. She has studied with renowned NY acting coach Jack Waltzer and the Chekhov Actors’ Training Institute. Fiona co-founded the theatre company The Other Tongue, which has toured internationally. Her TV work includes My Life is Murder, Wentworth, Offspring, 7 Types of Ambiguity, Paper Giants 2, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and A Dangerous Method. Film credits include Roy Hollsdotter Live and Noise, winner of an AFI Award.

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