STAY WITH ME

The unforgettable story of a young woman finding the courage to escape her present, face her past and embrace her future, from the bestselling author of The Convent.

On an end-of-school trip to beautiful Byron Bay, 18 year-old Tess meets 28 year-old Jay. Instead of returning home she moves into a relationship with Jay, which escalates into one of both physical and psychological abuse. When they have a child Tess feels totally caught. She has lost contact with her family, they live in the hills miles from anywhere and she doesn’t have a car or a phone of her own. How can she leave? But then Jay starts to threaten their daughter so, with three-year-old Nellie’s safety to consider, how can she not leave? Tess knows she must find a way to escape her violent partner, and a chance meeting offers a way out – and a road trip back to the heart of her past. But what will be waiting for her at home? Will her family forgive her, and can she forgive them? Stay with Me radiates with Maureen McCarthy’s characteristic warmth and deep emotion, and her characters’ flawed and messy lives make us care for them desperately from the very first page. Damaged and vulnerable, Tess needs to learn how to trust again – yet acts of violence can come out of the blue – and the question of whether she and her daughter can ever be safe again pulsates through the novel with an angry, timely urgency. Maureen McCarthy is the ninth of ten children and grew up on a farm near Yea in Victoria. After working for a while as an art teacher, Maureen became a full-time writer. Her novels for young adults include The Convent, Somebody’s Crying, Rose by any other name and her much loved bestseller Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life, which was made into a highly successful 4-part mini-series for ABC TV. Her books for middle grade readers include Careful what you wish for and Flash Jack.