Sandie Docker in conversation with Claudine Tinellis - Nowra Library

Join us for a conversation with bestselling author Sandie Docker, with a special guest performance by the Shoalhaven Community Choir.

From the bestselling author of The Wattle Island Book Club comes a deeply moving story about the power of discovering your voice.

Set between 1973 and present day, Sandie Docker expertly interweaves the stories of three women to confront the very real issues many face in modern-Australia every day from homelessness to the unhealed scars of historic forced adoption.

For years, lost and lonely women found their home in the stately federation house by Lyrebird Lake and their family in the Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir, run by sisters Eleanor and Maggie. When Eleanor enters the choir into the All Voices Championship, it offers them all a chance to make up for lost dreams. At the same time, single mum Hannah arrives in town, homeless after being widowed and hoping for a new start with her son.

With her angelic voice, Hannah could give the choir a winning edge. But when Eleanor hears her singing a long-forgotten lullaby, she is transported to her past, a traumatic time when two teenage girls were banished from their Irish homeland to a faraway country.

Will Hannah’s arrival mend old wounds, or will the secret she unknowingly carries tear the sisters apart?

Sandie’s sixth book is an empowering and hopeful look at how sometimes owning up to the secrets we tell ourselves can help us to find our way back home.

About Sandie:

Sandie Docker grew up in Coffs Harbour, and first fell in love with reading when her father introduced her to fantasy books as a teenager. Her love of fiction began when she first read Jane Austen for the HSC, but it wasn't until she was taking a translation course at university that her Mandarin lecturer suggested she might have a knack for writing – a seed of an idea that sat quietly in the back of her mind while she lived overseas and travelled the world. Sandie first decided to put pen to paper (yes, she writes everything the old-fashioned way before hitting a keyboard) when living in London. Now back in Sydney with her husband and daughter, she writes every day.

About Claudine:

Claudine Tinellis is a Sydney-based author, podcaster and presenter/moderator. A former corporate lawyer, Claudine ventured into the world of publishing in 2014 as the editor of Coastal Chef: Culinary Art of Seaweed & Algae in the 21st Century. In the years since, Claudine has dedicated herself to writing fiction and finding varying ways to support the world of Australian literature. She is an executive founding member of the Northern Beaches Readers Festival and has moderated for many book launches and other festivals. With more than 270 different authors interviewed to date, Claudine’s podcast Talking Aussie Books is a popular program bringing readers and writers of Australian fiction together.

Dymocks will be selling copies of Sandie's book at the event.