Author: Rosalie Ham
Publisher: Potts Point, N.S.W.: Duffy & Snellgrove 2000
Annotation: Tilly Dunnage returns to her long abandoned hometown in the wake of her mother's illness, only to find the grudges of her youth still sit centre in the minds of the townsfolk. With her skills learnt abroad she sets up a dress shop, bringing fashion and beauty to the town through her work, drawing the attention and business of even those who openly despise her for the death she was connected to that forced her departure so many years ago.
Playing on the insular emotions of small towns this book focuses on the dread of ostracisation and isolation, the darkness it can propagate in people's hearts, and the light that exists in spite of it. Accidental deaths continue to occur in the small town, all connected in one way or another to Tilly and her various trauma suffered at the hand of the townsfolk, and yet despite seeing each accident unfold by the book's end the reader is left uncertain.
This richly detailed book focuses on the dark humour of some gothic stories, throwing the Australian twist through the sheer isolation echoed from the town in Tilly's own social isolation.
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