One of the wattle birds

On the surface, nineteen-year-old Cecily Ambruss and her lover, Wil, are preparing for university exams in a calm and ordered fashion. But Cecily is haunted by questions about her mother and sets out to wring answers from those who knew her. Her journeys to her aunt and uncle, conversations with her grandmother, even a visit to the father she has never met, fail to resolve her quest. Cecily is too volatile and angry to admit that there is no simple solution, but she does at last reach a comprehension of the alchemy by which we make a truthful fiction of a life. A magnificent blend of character, ideas and very human deception.