The Fern Tattoo

Benedict Waters is called to see an elderly woman who was a friend of his mother's. She seems to know exactly who he is and tells stories as though the world were about to end. Only slowly, and after a startling revelation, does he understand that the family she is describing is his own and that his own life is coming undone. The tale crosses several generations and three families, moving from the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury to Sydney and the coast south of it, and its people include a bishop with two wives, a librarian covered in tattoos, a girl who accidentally shoots her closest friend, and two lovers who go on living each other's lives long after they separate.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia

First published

2007

Author's age

54 when first published

ISBN

9780702236266 (University of Queensland Press, Australia)

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Wikidata