Tirra Lirra by the River

By Jessica Anderson

Book Overview

Nora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age 70. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London; she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life. At home, the neighbourhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighbourhood in the years that have lapsed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1612193889
• ISBN13: 9781612193885
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: Melville House Publishing
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An appealing favourite

One of the few books I have re-read in adulthood, having discovered it in late teenagehood. Very good indeed. Its descption of life for a woman seeking independence in Sydney on the post-WW2 period is excellent, as is the exposition of aging, and the bitter-sweetness of an expat returning to a former home. In the scenes in Brisbane suburbia you can almost smell the frangipani and mango trees!

You'll want to discover this wonderful writer.

Jessica Anderson deserves a place alongside the equally masterful Alice Munro. Her prose is flawless, compelling, simple and elegant, and it serves a finely crafted story and page-turning plot. I don't know why Anderson is not better known, but I certainly feel lucky that I found her.