We That Are Left
Set in Melbourne during World War II, this novel tells the parallel stories of two women: Grace Fowler, who works as a secretary for a newspaper editor but has ambitions to become a reporter, and Mae Parker, wife of Harry, an officer in the Royal Australian Navy.
In 1941, when the pride of the fleet, HMAS Sydney, and all of her 645 crew go missing in the Indian Ocean after a battle with German cruiser, Kormoran, Grace gets a chance to realise her dream reporting on how the potential tragedy is affecting those at home, while Mae struggles with guilt over a quarrel she had with Harry shortly before he left and must also face the possibility she will never see him again. Both women have to negotiate false information and the cruel hope generated by the Government’s evasiveness over what happened.
With her positive and practical attitude, Grace is the more appealing and dynamic of the pair, whereas Mae is a complex and introspective individual who struggles with her motherhood role and is in constant denial of the truth. Grace’s romance with journalist and prisoner-of-war Phil Taylor has an uneven outcome, and Mae’s preoccupations tend to get maudlin and repetitious, but overall this portrayal of life on the Australian home front is a compassionate and satisfying read. As both Grace and Mae have interesting family back stories, there is scope here for further complementary novels from promising debut author, Lisa Bigelow.
In the concluding notes, the author says she was inspired by the story of her own grandfather, who was lost in HMAS Sydney, and that her grandmother never knew what happened to the ship. (The mystery was only finally solved when it was discovered off the coast of Western Australia in 2008.)
