Publisher's Synopsis
Born in late 1947, Stephen Marsden lives a quiet, simple life in a small Australian country town. Excelling at schoolwork and poised for a successful Uni career, his life careens off course during his final year of high school when his abusive father demands, with physical force, that he give up his education.From that one act come revelations, one after the other, that set his feet onto a different journey. This new journey reveals diaries written by his mother before his birth that give him a new view of his parents, his own beginnings, his mother's nature, and confirms his father is even more of a stranger to him than he knew.At age sixteen, Stephen becomes an apprentice mechanic. His boss quickly becomes an important part of his life-and their relationship grows into one of deep respect and eventually, love. It's during these five years that both he and his mother learn the extent to which his father, in conjunction with others, turned to highly criminal activity.These crimes eventually involve Stephen and his mother with the highest levels of law enforcement and yield new discoveries leading Stephen to uncover a murder, a suicide, a robbery, and a whole family he and his mother never knew existed.Through all of this, one stable element in his life remains- the love of his school sweetheart, Marie, who guides both he and his mother through each of the seemingly impossible trials they face.
