This week for Tuesday Book Club Andrew Pople continued to share his love of Australian fiction by bringing in Brisbane author Holly Ringland’s new novel “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart”. The book follows Alice as a young child living in a seaside village. She loves her mother, but is confused by her father’s rapid mood changes. A sudden tragic fire then means that Alice must leave the town to live on her grandmother’s farm, Thornfield, a home for women with no place else to go. The reader watches Alice grow closer to her grandmother and slowly recover from her trauma, though she still carries the effects of the fire with her into adulthood. This beautifully thought-provoking novel highlights the intergenerational trauma of domestic abuse, and prompts questions about necessary changes to culture.

Coming up on Tuesday Book Club next week: “The Way Things Should Be” by Bridie Jabour.