女性敘事者的生命回望。故事以 Nora 的回望與自述為核心，描繪她在人生不同階段中，如何在家庭、感情與自我之間反覆試探方向。旁人眼中的她或許顯得輕率、疏離，但敘事聲音卻展現出敏銳而幽默的洞察力。文字看似平易，卻層層鋪展出時間、記憶與選擇交織的重量。多家媒體高度評價本書的成熟度與魅力，認為它既浪漫又冷靜，能細膩呈現那些在世界中感到格格不入的人，如何一步步理解自己的人生位置。One of Australia’s most celebrated novels: one woman’s journey from Australia to LondonNora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age seventy. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London; she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life.At home, the neighborhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighborhood in the years that have lapsed.With grace and humor, Nora recounts her desire to escape, the way her marriage went wrong, the vanity that drove her to get a facelift, and one romantic sea voyage that has kept her afloat during her dark
