Daddy’s Girl

a powerful story about a couple whose daughter was killed overseas in a Bali-style bombing.

Whispering Gums

A terrorist truck bomb destroys a disco bar on the crowded tourist island of Phuket in Thailand.

The ripples of the event spread quickly across the globe. A telephone rings at 3 a.m. in a country village outside Melbourne, and an ordinary Australian family are blown apart by the after-shock.

Danny, the father, seems almost unhinged by the loss of his favourite child, leaving his wife Kim to cope not only with her own grief but with Danny’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Their trip to Thailand to visit the scene of the bombing is a disaster.

On their return to Australia, Danny goes on feeding his grief, while Kim, with time, finds ways to discharge hers. One of those ways involves a gesture of healing to the local people of Phuket. But will Danny have the courage to join her?

Buy John Clanchy’s Daddy’s Girl now, and find out whether Danny will be able grasp the one small branch of hope which she holds out to him?

What an author Clanchy is … His work has won major awards in Europe, the US, New Zealand and Australia, including the Queensland Premier’s Award for short fiction and, on two occasions, the ACT Book of the Year. Clanchy is widely acknowledged as a master of the short literary form.

The Sydney Morning Herald

These are the sorts of situations you read or hear about and wonder how the people at the centre of them cope. Clanchy explores just this, with sensitivity and authenticity, teasing out the underlying humanity of his characters … we empathise and are encouraged to see the extent of human capacity to accommodate the unexpected.

Whispering Gums

Expertly told, without a false note.

Australian Book Review

I encourage people to invest in a copy … and be entertained by an accomplished Australian author.

A&NZ LitLovers