Sweet Wattle Creek
It’s 1986 and Sophie is on the run from a toxic relationship. She hides out in the small country town of Sweet Wattle Creek and gets a job with the local newspaper. When an old wedding dress arrives on her doorstep with just “Charlie and Belle” written on the box, she’s keen to uncover its history.
A personal tragedy shatters Belle’s comfortable life in Melbourne. Her only asset is the run-down Grand Hotel bequeathed to her by her mysterious Aunt Martha. When she takes up her inheritance in 1931, she has to deal with unexplained open resentments towards her and Martha.
Sophie finds a common link to Belle: “…our circumstances were similar in a way. I, too, had left all I’d known behind me after a catastrophic event, and had to make a new life for myself among strangers… I knew a little of the emotional trauma Belle must have been through.”
The flavour of small-town life in rural Australia is excellent, as are the finer details of the 1930s and 1980s. Sophie’s story tackles some complex contemporary issues, while Belle is a sympathetic reflection of a woman facing the prejudices and attitudes of a grieving conservative generation who suffered World War I only to be hit by the Great Depression.
With the alternating narratives, concentration is needed to follow the sequence of events and intricate relationships. Because the reader knows right from the beginning the basis of Martha’s secret, also the history of the wedding dress, the gradual revelations for the benefit of first Belle and then Sophie can make some passages feel repetitive. There are also the inevitable contrivances tying up the plot, but overall this is a warm and entertaining novel that will give pleasure to many readers both in Australia and beyond.
