A Secret Grief

<p><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>Acclaimed author Natalie Scott returns with a deeply introspective and semi-autobiographical narrative. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>A key lies at the heart of this evocative memoir-unlocking long-buried memories of a childhood shaped by beauty fear and fierce emotional undercurrents in 1930s and 1940s Australia.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>Narrated by Natasha Ross born to middle-class parents of European origins this is a story shadowed by her complex and brilliant mother Nina-whose first act of motherhood teeters on the edge of tragedy above a seaside cliff. Her father Marcus warm and sociable is caught between loyalty to his wife and love for his daughter. In an effort to protect Natasha he sends her to a conservative boarding school in the Blue Mountains.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>There under the authority of two stern spinsters-one English one French-Natasha is thrust into a world of routine silence and subtle cruelties. While the Depression and World War II stir beyond the school gates Natasha faces her own battles: navigating loneliness forging fleeting friendships and confronting the pressures of conformity. In time she runs-not just from the school but toward her own developing sense of self.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>Unflinching and lyrical </span><em style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>A Secret Grief </em><span style=color: rgba(20 20 20 1)>is a meditation on memory survival and the forces that shape-and sometimes fracture-our earliest bonds.</span></p><p></p>