Grace's Table

Families were like sand dunes, Grace decided. They shifted shape and position with even the gentlest of forces. Even a tiny puff — a shrug — could bring about change, move a handful of thoughts to a new understanding, a new authority. A gale, like today’s, and whole dunes — lives and futures — were relocated, reimagined.

Grace had not had twelve people at her table for a while. This wasn’t the kind of family who shared regular Sunday meals. But you don’t turn 70 every day.

As her friends and family arrive for lunch, memories are rekindled but not all of them are welcome. As the meal is served, it becomes clear that events of the past have left their mark on everyone at the table in vastly different ways. Grace is reminded that age is no guarantee of wisdom and there is much still to learn from the young at heart. As the family finally confront a shocking event in their past, Grace is forced to face her own shortcomings as a parent and wife and left to contemplate the ways in which grief and regret have resonated through her life.

This moving and often funny novel dissects the lives of women over three generations, explores the pull and power of memory and celebrates the triumph of endurance.

• Author
• Sally Piper

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 306

• Publisher
• University of Queensland Press

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9780702250040

• Genres
• fiction, contemporary, audiobook

• Release date
• 2014