Samantha Tidy
The Happiness Jar
Storytorch Press, 2013
Rachel Hudson succumbs to cystic fibrosis at age twenty-seven, leaving behind secrets that push each of her remaining family to question what it is they want from life, and from each other. Her father Brian, a Vietnam veteran struggling with the long-term effects of the war, has been missing ever since he walked out on Beth and their two children in the dead of night twenty years ago. Matt dreams of one day finding his own path like his heroic father, as Beth’s religious fervour propagates a childhood of parental disappointment.
Rachel sets before her family one last request: a journey to the exotic and the unknown. Rachel, ever the free spirit, administers a dose of her notorious wanderlust.
The Happiness Jar is a story about how tightly you hold on to what you believe in; how one person’s beliefs can affect a family and tear at the already fragile folds where love hides. It’s about faith, and what can endure despite the burdens we place on ourselves and each other.
Set against the red dust of the Kimberley desert, and the smoky backdrop of the holy River Ganges in India, The Happiness Jar is a novel that reminds us that we continue to live in the memories we leave behind.
Winner, ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction 2014
FAW Christina Stead Award- Runner Up, 2013
“a compelling story about awakening and renewal.”
About the Author
Samantha Tidy is a writer of adult, young adult and children's fiction. Recent children’s titles include The Day We Built the Bridge (MidnightSun, February 2019) and Our Bush Capital. Her adult novel, The Happiness Jar won the ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction (2014) and was Runner up for the FAW Christina Stead Award (2013). Earlier titles include The Blue Polar Bear (Children’s Picture Book, 2005), The Flying Dream (Children’s Picture Book, 2005) and Cappuccino Diva (novel, 2003). Cloudspotting will be illustrated by Susannah Crispe, and published by Windy Hollow Books in March, 2023.
Her first ever award nomination was as Runner Up to the T.A.G. Hungerford Award for Fiction (2000) - an acknowledgement of her first novel, which set her on her path as a writer. In 2008, she was a research fellow at the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF).
