Penelope Hanley
After She Left
Impact Press / Simon & Schuster, 2019
When young Irish artist Deirdre O’Mara emigrates from the remote Blasket Islands to Sydney’s The Rocks in the 1920s, she makes an indelible mark on conservative society with her surrealist art and bohemian ways. Just after the Second World War, Deirdre leaves for Europe to be with her lover – leaving behind her estranged daughter and a family secret.
Years later, Deirdre’s granddaughter Keira is determined to discover the secret and her mother, Maureen, clinging to her own fears of the past and a desire to change her future, fights to stop her. When the three women’s lives intersect amidst the emerging women’s liberation movement and political tension in 1970s Sydney, what price will be paid for the deceptions of the past?
About the Author
Penelope Hanley holds a PhD in Communications from the University of Canberra (2009). She has taught creative writing and editing and is now a freelance writer and editor. As well as having had non-fiction and a novel (Full House, Simon and Schuster, 1993) published, eighteen of Penny’s short stories have appeared in national and international journals, and two stories were short-listed for prizes. Her latest book, Creative Lives: personal papers of Australian writers and artists, was published by the National Library in 2009. She lives in the inner north of Canberra with her family, two cats and three chooks.
