An epic story of love and the lies we tell ourselves, from an extraordinary Australian literary talent

Are you still a liar? The crafting of those five words, even without dispatch, left her chilled.

Arctic Circle, 2012. On a lightless day at the end of the polar winter, landscape architect Evie Waddell finds herself exhuming the past as she buries Australian seeds in a frozen mountain vault - insurance against catastrophe.

Molong, 1953. Catastrophe is all seven-year-old Paddy O'Connor has known. Shipped from institutional care in London to an Australian farm school, his world is a shadowy place where lies scaffold fragile truths and painful memories. To Paddy's south in Canberra, young Evie is safe in her family's embrace, yet soon learns there are some paths from which you can't turn back; impulses and threats that she only half understands but seems to have known forever.

Blue Mountains, 1962. From their first meeting as teenagers at a country market, Paddy and Evie grow a compulsive, unconventional love that spans decades, taking them in directions neither could have foreseen.

Set against the uneasy relationship society has with its own truth-telling in history, war and politics, DESIRE LINES is an epic story of love and the lies we tell ourselves to survive - and a reminder that even truths which seem lost forever can find their way home.

I was drawn to this story, as I was born close to the Arctic Cricle, grew up in Canberra, love the Blue Mountains and live near Molong.

The story opens with "Are you still a liar?"

Volk's descriptive prose is evocative. It took me many pages, chapters to get into the story to the point of almost giving up. About halfway I did get more engrossed and was keen to see how the lives of Paddy and Evie resolved.

I wonder if there was too much to cover – early Canberra, Fairbridge Farm, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Whitlam dismissal – themes of architecture, botany, family violence, abuse and trauma, poverty, child migration, lust, desire, the maturation of the nation – maybe too many plot points, all compelling in their own way, however (maybe) too ambitious as the author attempts to develop characters and their storylines as well as showing us much of the history of modern Australia.

"perhaps all a lie really is - just a truth that took a wrong turn and lost it's way."

Overall, it is a capably written story of love within landscape and history.

I thank Better Reading for providing me with a preview copy to review.

the book has officially been released now, though the offical (national) launch in canberra has now had to be cancelled - it was a sold out launch at the national library of australia

i'll be sending this on a journey to a new reader some day soon

;)

edit to add book launch audio link (National Library of Australia)
https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/audio/desire-lines-book-launch

off on a journey to accompany a wishlist tag - happy to see it on your wishlist

happy reading

;)

the release categories have changed (gremlin attack?)... it should be rabck - wishlist surprise - that's what it is

happy reading

;)

Thankyou so much for the extra ‘book’ rabck surprise! It’s raining books at my place today as in parcels arriving and the need for an umbrella!!