After She Left
by Penelope Hanley
When young Irish artist Deirdre O'Mara emigrates from the remote Blasket Islands to Sydney's The Rocks in the 1920s, she makes an indelible mark on conservative society with her surrealist art and bohemian ways. Just after the Second World War, Deirdre leaves for Europe to be with her lover – leaving behind her estranged daughter and a family secret. Years later, Deirdre's granddaughter Keira is determined to discover the secret and her mother, Maureen, clinging to her own fears of the past and a desire to change her future, fights to stop her. When the three women's lives intersect amidst the emerging women's liberation movement and political tension in 1970s Sydney, what price will be paid for the deceptions of the past?