Iluka: the brilliant 2026 debut for readers of Emily Maguire, Charlotte Wood and Anne Tyler
About this audiobook
'Knife sharp perception ... fiction that is an absolute pleasure to read,' Emily Maguire, author
This vivid, engrossing, beautifully crafted family drama from an exciting debut author charts the hurtful messes, complicated relationships and profound loves of three siblings.
After their grandfather's death, siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan, and Helen's daughter, film student Tig, are gathered together at Iluka, a typical fibro beach house in a small town on the south coast. Iluka is the house they grew up in when their troubled mother ran away to the bright lights of the city, leaving their grandparents to raise them.
As they slowly clear the house for sale and relive various memories, they find a bundle of letters addressed to each of them from their missing mother, Marguerite, that were sent long after they'd been told she died.
Their world shifts on its axis, as the siblings begin to question everything they have been told. Why did their grandmother hide these letters? Was their grandfather complicit? And could the mother they thought they had lost still be alive?
Viewed through the unsparing eye of Tig's camera, we watch a family first implode then reform around a new reality, a reality that brings with it profound change in the way they view themselves and each other.
About the author
Photograph: Kate WilliamsCassie Stroud is a writer, editor and bookseller. She lives in a 1950s house on Sydney's north shore with her husband, son and their Siamese cat. Iluka is her first novel.
Hannah Fredericksen is an actor and vocalist who has worked broadly across film, TV, theatre and musical theatre. Her notable stage credits include appearances as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, Sandra Dee in Dreamlover: The Bobby Darin Musical and Lynette Squeaky Fromme in Assassins. On screen, Hannah has featured as Mandy Hodson in Informer 3838, Bianca in Playing For Keeps, Molly in Olivia Newton-John and Robyn Leneham in Wake in Fright.
