A lonely, middle-aged Englishwoman, bound to her bedridden mother and her clerical job, becomes enthralled by her correspondence with Australian novelist Diana Hopewell and by the novel that Diana is writing in her letters...
"A dazzling comic novel—a delightful romp and a blistering satire. “Reading Jolley makes one feel alive.”—Lemony Snicket.
After an unplanned admission to a nursing home, Mr. Scobie must protect himself and his dream...
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: a witty and sophisticated classic by one of Australia's most daring and entertaining novelists. Edwin Page, a fussy middle-aged professor, no sooner bids farewell to his obstetrician wife, Cecilia, who accep...
This is the story of an old cleaning woman -- known as “Weekly” or “The Newspaper” to the residents of Claremont Street for whom she works -- who dreams of escape from the parasitic demands of both her past and her present. This new edition o...
A novel made up of one woman's recollections of her youth, including her time as a trainee nurse, her work in a maternity clinic and then in a girl's tyrannical boarding school, and finally her job in Glasgow, where she enters into a love affair with...
This moving masterpiece by one of Australia’s leading novelists -- now in its entirety -- inaugurates Persea’s series of Elizabeth Jolley revivals. Set in 1940s wartime England, the trilogy follows young Vera, who leaves her cultivated Midlands h...