by Liz Byrski
‘Very sad,’ Ros says, feeling a small smile twitch at the corner of her mouth. And she glances upwards. You’re famous, she tells James. Trust you to hog all the attention. You’ve become an urban legend.
‘I think I can get going now,’ she says to the woman. ‘Thank you so much, you’ve been very kind.’
‘Don’t mention it. It doesn’t take a moment, does it, to stop and help someone? Oh look, are those your violets?’ She gets off the wall as if to retrieve them.
Ros puts out a restraining hand. ‘It’s all right, I don’t need them,’ she says. ‘Just something else to carry.’
‘Oh, but . . .’
‘Really, let’s leave them as . . . well, as a token, let’s say, for the man who died here. It feels right, doesn’t it?’
She takes the woman’s arm, and when the lights change they cross the street and walk on towards the café. And Ros doesn’t look back.
Acknowledgements
What a privilege it has been to work on this, my tenth novel, with the wonderful group of people at Pan Macmillan. I’m especially indebted to my publisher, the amazing Cate Paterson, and editors extraordinaire Georgia Douglas and Jo Jarrah. Thank you for your insight, your patience and great ideas, and most of all, for saving me from myself! And thank you, too, to all the other hardworking, efficient and thoughtful people who make sure the books get out onto the shelves and that readers know about them.
Thank you, too, to my wonderful family and friends who put up with me yakking on about what I’m doing, and who boost my spirits when it feels as though it’s all falling apart.
And last, but by no means least, thank you to the many loyal readers who write and email and let me know what the books have meant to them. You are an inspiration.
About Liz Byrski
Liz Byrski is the author of ten novels and a number of non-fiction books. Her work has been published in the UK, France and Germany. She has worked as a journalist and a broadcaster with ABC Radio and has been an advisor to a minister in the Western Australian Government. Liz is an Associate Professor in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University, where she is also the Senior Fellow in the China Australia Writing Centre.
Also by Liz Byrski
Fiction
Gang of Four
Food, Sex & Money
Belly Dancing for Beginners
Trip of a Lifetime
Bad Behaviour
Last Chance Café
In the Company of Strangers
Family Secrets
The Woman Next Door
Non-fiction
Remember Me
Getting On: Some Thoughts on Women and Ageing
In Love and War: Nursing Heroes
This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organisations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.
First published 2018 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Liz Byrski 2018
The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
The author and the publisher have made every effort to contact copyright holders for material used in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked should contact the publisher.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781760781286
Typeset by Post Pre-press Group
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