First published 1994
Albion Gidley grows up privileged in upper-class Sydney and takes over his father's profitable stationery business. He feels awkward in social situations and compensates by reciting lengthy facts to anyone nearby. The world's harsh realities disturb him deeply. He approaches finding a wife with scientific detachment, believing women are essentially identical and interchangeable. After marriage comes childbirth, which he finds mysterious and distasteful. His first child is Lilian, a daughter whose gender disappoints him. He declares that nature cheated Lilian by making her female, but he refuses to let this flaw diminish her value to him. She shares his traits in every way except gender, and he determines not to let that single difference ruin everything else. Lilian grows into a large, curious, strong-willed young woman. Her father sees her as ungainly despite her feminine clothing. As she matures, her very existence as a female challenges Albion's understanding of himself. The battle of wills between father and daughter becomes increasingly costly for both.
Genres: fiction, family, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: father-daughter-conflict, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Sydney
Period: 19th-Century, 20th-Century
375 pages · Hardcover · Harcourt