It’s never too late to be what you might have been.
When Clara Wingrove’s husband of twenty-five years announces that he doesn’t love her anymore, she’s left blindsided. Why didn’t she see it coming?
After their divorce, a sudden need for security drives Clara into a hasty marriage with a man she barely knows.
At first glance, Stefan is calm, pragmatic and reassuringly attentive – just what she thought she needed. But after almost a year together, Clara feels stifled by his rigid adherence to routine. Safety becomes suffocating.
Then a chance encounter at the dog park brings Tom into her world. Tom, an intriguing new arrival to the local community, is artistic, charming, and good-looking.
And that’s when Clara’s safe, predictable world is thrown into chaos.
The Dog Park is a heartfelt page-turner that explores how living fully means abandoning certainty and allowing life to surprise you.
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This is a love story. It begins with a divorce.
When Ida decides to leave her marriage after twenty-seven years, it isn’t failure she feels but freedom. The future is suddenly full of possibilities – to reinvent herself, make her own decisions, and take control of her life again as a newly-single woman in her fifties.
Navigating the unknown territory of online dating, and enjoying (and enduring) the highs and lows of meeting potential partners, Ida finally meets Jev. He is intelligent, witty, handsome, and handy with a pair of hairdressing scissors.
They hit it off right away, slipping easily into a loving relationship, shuttling between her home in Melbourne and his in Healesville, enjoying a ‘weekends-only’ arrangement that suits their active lifestyles. They share their hobbies, their dreams, their lives. Futures are discussed. Plans are made.
And then Jev gets sick.
An Interrupted Life is a true story of love, sacrifice, and how the choices we make can impact the rest of our lives. Ida Di Pastena writes with deep humour and unflinching honesty about the realities of navigating the world as a newly-single woman, falling in love, and being suddenly thrust into the role of caregiver.
As Ida adjusts to the circumstances of her new life, she comes to realise that change isn’t always a matter of choice, and it’s how we choose to respond to change that determines how our story goes.
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| “The memoir traverses a roller-coaster of emotions. The narrative arc that propels this well-structured book makes it feel almost like a novel, but when the crisis comes, it happens to a real woman, who has to deal with the aftermath and decide how she wants to respond to changes that she didn’t foresee.” ~ Lisa Hill |
“… Ida’s almost forensic questions about love, death, and doubt, become the substance of life itself – what it means to be fully alive and ultimately alone. She skillfully lifts this seemingly local story into a higher sphere.” ~ Simon Pockley (Goodreads) |
“This is a universal story. It is ordinary. And it will be utterly relatable to a lot of readers (I count myself amongst them.). While it’s an absorbing story of love and loss and regaining life – all the big themes – what really makes this memoir so relatable is the characters. It’s a thoroughly moving and yet uplifting book. I absolutely loved it.” ~ Liz Kemp |