The Story Thief by Kyra Geddes

 The Story Thief is an Australian saga which follows Lillian Taylor from her birth in 1892 in outer western New South Wales up to her present life in 1954 in suburban Sydney. Tragic circumstances saw Lillian leave Bourke as a young girl and, through the generosity of a benefactor, become a boarder at Kincoppal Sacred Heart college in Rose Bay, Sydney. 

One day Lillian chanced upon a copy of While The Billy Boils, a collection of Henry Lawson’s short stories. [Reviewer’s note: I was given a copy of this book as a prize in my own convent school days, many years ago, (although not as long ago as Lillian’s, of course).  Sadly, it was destroyed in a flood in 2022.]. Lillian was struck by the story, The Drover’s Wife, and she can’t help wondering if Henry Lawson had met her family and based his story on her mother. In her determination to find out the truth, and whether he was a ‘story thief’, she wrote a letter to Henry Lawson. I won’t be putting any spoilers in here on that thread.

The twentieth century moves on as Lillian’s story unfolds through to the years of the Second World War and their aftermath. Her life is shaped by all the people who come into it, bringing happiness and, inevitably, sadness. 

Kyra Geddes’ elegant prose is perfect for invoking the magnitude of the changes in Australia’s, and the world’s, history from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Lillian is a deep and complicated character whose intelligence and strength, together with the kindnesses and friendships she encounters along the way, get her past her unbearably tragic beginnings and help prepare her, as far as possible, for everything her future holds. 

This book was absolutely unputdownable. Congratulations Kyra Geddes. Brilliant!

Published by Affirm Press.