A memorable portrait of a proto-feminist determined to free herself from society's expectations-- "Sunday Times"

The masterful Grenville addresses the question of why this brilliant, frustrated woman struggled to express love to her children with clarity and compassion in a swift, thoroughly absorbing book-- "Mail Online"

Vivid and memorable . . . [Kate Grenville] offers us the ambivalence and complex textures of experience without losing the rhythm and pace of realist fiction--SARAH MOSS

"A powerful novel about a woman determined to rise above her station . . . A privilege to share in Grenville's indomitable grandmother's journey"-- "The Times"

"A work of history, biography, story and memoir, all fused into a novel that suggests the great potential of literary art as redeemer, healer and pathway to understanding . . . the writing sparkles with Grenville's gift for transcendently clear imagery"-- "Guardian"

"Brings readers into intimate acquaintance with the lives of women in late 19th- and early 20th-century rural Australia . . . elevated by Grenville's crystalline prose"-- "Globe and Mail"

"Grenville . . . tells Dolly's story swiftly, cleanly and compassionately, all the while refusing to let this difficult, furious woman off the hook. Excellent"-- "Daily Mail"

"Grenville astutely portrays the friction between the heroine and her daughter, who is stung by her mother's steely reserve - perhaps because she can't see the life story we've just read"-- "Mail on Sunday, Best New Fiction"