From the worldwide bestselling author of The Clockmaker’s Daughter, Kate Morton has gifted us with a spellbinding story that begins with a shocking crime, the effects of which echo across continents and generations.
Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959: At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek on the grounds of the grand and mysterious mansion, a local delivery man makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.
London, 2018: Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for almost twenty years, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job, heart-sore and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call summons her back to Sydney, where her beloved grandmother, Nora, who raised Jess when her mother could not, has suffered a fall and been raced to the hospital.
At Nora’s house, Jess does some digging of her own. In Nora’s bedroom, she discovers a true-crime book chronicling the police case: the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. It is only when Jess skims through its pages that she finds a shocking connection between her own family and this once-infamous crime – a murder mystery that has never been resolved satisfactorily. And for a journalist without a story, a cold case might be the best distraction she can find…
It’s no secret that Kate Morton is one of Australia’s greatest literary treasures, and, with over 11 million copies of her novels sold worldwide, she’s one of our highest-selling international authors. Now, she delivers Homecoming, an epic story that spans generations, asking what we would do for those we love, how we protect the lies we tell, and what it means to come home.
A definite contender for novel of the year, Homecoming lives up to its promise, providing a masterclass on storytelling. It explores the power of motherhood, the corrosive effects of tightly-held secrets, and the healing nature of truth.
Intergenerational and set across two times, Morton has always had a talent for the historical – she describes time and place in great, visceral detail. Opening her family’s Pandora’s Box of familial secrets, sins and heartaches, there are a multitude of mysterious that dance about our protagonist Jess – including the big unsolved murder.
Compellingly written with a mesmerising pace, Morton’s ability to take you by the hand and lead you through her maze of adult longings and familial contradictions is exceptional. She sets her scenes with precision, allowing you to delight in stories within stories, reveal after reveal. With tonal echoes of Where the Crawdad’s Sing, Homecoming never strays from a strong sense of its themes. It explores what it means to belong, the inheritance of loss, the malignancy of secrets, and the ability to delude ourselves via selective memories and justifications of the heart. A must read.
Leave a Reply