Restless Dolly Maunder - by Kate Grenville

About the Book

"The international bestselling author of The Secret River and A Room Made of Leaves returns with a fictionalised account of her grandmother's life, commemorating a strong female character making the best out of the times and society she was born in. Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society's long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do not deter her from searching for love and independence. Restless Dolly Maunder is a subversive, triumphant tale of a pioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who is able - despite the cost - to make a life she could call her own." --Goodreads.

Book Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024

The international bestselling author of The Secret River and
A Room Made of Leaves returns with a fictionalised account of her grandmother's
life, commemorating a strong female character making the best out of the times
and society she was born in.

Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century,
when society's long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined
women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly
spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do
not deter her from searching for love and independence.

Restless Dolly Maunder is a subversive, triumphant tale of a
pioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who
is able - despite the cost - to make a life she could call her own.

Review Quotes

A memorable portrait of a proto-feminism determined to free herself from society's expectations-- "Sunday Times"

A memorable portrait of a proto-feminist determined to free herself from society's expectations-- "Sunday Times"

Grenville . . . tells Dolly's story swiftly, cleanly and compassionately, all the while refusing to let this difficult, furious woman off the hook. Excellent-- "Daily Mail"

Grenville astutely portrays the friction between the heroine and her daughter, who is stung by her mother's steely reserve - perhaps because she can't see the life story we've just read-- "Mail on Sunday, Best New Fiction"

Kate Grenville spins a delicately teasing novel about the inherent untrustworthiness of the official record . . . beautiful and subtle-- "Financial Times"

The masterful Grenville addresses the question of why this brilliant, frustrated woman struggled to express love to her children with clarity and compassion in a swift, thoroughly absorbing book-- "Mail Online"

Vivid and memorable . . . [Kate Grenville] offers us the ambivalence and complex textures of experience without losing the rhythm and pace of realist fiction-- "Times Literary Supplement"

A powerful novel about a woman determined to rise above her station . . . A privilege to share in Grenville's indomitable grandmother's journey-- "The Times"

Brings readers into intimate acquaintance with the lives of women in late 19th- and early 20th-century rural Australia . . . elevated by Grenville's crystalline prose-- "Globe and Mail"

Kate Grenville gives voice to this reticent woman, allowing her smart, sparky, shrewd heroine a chance "at last to speak" . . . eloquent [and] evocative-- "Daily Mail"

A work of history, biography, story and memoir, all fused into a novel that suggests the great potential of literary art as redeemer, healer and pathway to understanding . . . the writing sparkles with Grenville's gift for transcendently clear imagery-- "Guardian"

Grenville cleverly uses Elizabeth's bland and pleasant missives home, showing that they were a carefully constructed fiction. The real Elizabeth -- passionate, clever and endlessly resilient -- is brilliantly conjured-- "The Times"

About the Author

Kate Grenville's bestselling novel The Secret River received
the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
and the Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Idea of Perfection won the Orange
Prize. Grenville's other novels include Sarah Thornhill, The Lieutenant,
Lilian's Story, Dark Places, Joan Makes History and A Room Made of Leaves.