Fiona Lowe’s latest book will feel close to home for many North East residents, and not just because it’s set in the region.
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Birthright tells the story of the Jamieson family and tensions over a wealthy inheritance.
Set in a fictional town, it follows four main female characters, each experiencing their own personal battles alongside the unravelling conflict.
“They all have their own marriages and lives and there’s this issue of Margaret’s money,” Lowe said.
“I’ve very much explored the idea of ‘inheritance impatience’.
“If you grow up in the same family, your experience will be very different due to the relationship you have with your parents and how you perceive your position in the family, and when people nurse grudges for 30 years, it can get ugly.”
Lowe was confronted by the anecdotes she heard writing this book, many constituting elder abuse.
“It makes your hair stand on end,” she said.
“I was told about a son who moved interstate and suggested his mother do too with promise of a unit; she sold the house, he got the money and when she flew up, there was no unit.
“Another person’s family had imploded over $1500 – there can be a lot of emotion attached to money.”
The book also explores connection to land (one character is a cheese maker), country community values and the ‘sandwich generation’ – who are bringing up children while caring for elderly parents.
While Albury-Wodonga and Rutherglen are mentioned in the book, the geography of the fictional town Mingunyah could be anywhere in the High Country.
Birthright is the 30th novel for the Wodonga-born and Geelong-based author, and the second stepping away from previous themes.
“I wrote about six or seven medical romances in America, and I wanted to write something completely different in Australia, so I wrote Daughter of Mine, set in Victoria’s Western District.
“It’s always good to go and stand in the area you have set a book, and I did the same for Birthright.
“It was a privilege to set it in the beautiful North East.”
Fiona Lowe will be at the following libraries this week:
- Wodonga, Wednesday March 21 from 2pm
- Bright, Thursday 22nd 2pm
- Benalla, March 23rd 1pm
- Wangaratta, March 24th from 11am