This story, distinctively Australian in flavour, is about a young girl growing up in Kings Cross in the 1950s. Our narrator, the five-year-old Annette Robinson, lives with her parents, siblings, ailing grandfather and an interesting array of boarders. These characters are at the centre of the memoir which spans roughly five years in the heroine’s life. The reader journeys with her as she navigates that familiar, difficult territory known as childhood. As she tries to decipher the complex code of ‘adult business’ with all its puzzles, secrets, lies and hidden meanings, Annette’s awkward, painful and embarrassing moments are portrayed with gentle humour-a humour tinged with irony, sadness and weltschmerz. Why won’t anyone talk about Auntie Julie? What is in the locked room? Who are those women with father? What is the meaning of her flying dreams and nightmares? Gradually, as the adult world opens its doors to her, that which was hidden is revealed. Annette learns that knowledge equals pain and coming of age has a price. This is a good read even if slightly long-I particularly liked the poetic style, the dream sequences interspersed with the narrative and the descriptions of Annette’s Catholic schooling.

Paula Grunseit is library manager at SBS Radio, Sydney

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