STAYING

Love can be ugly. Pain can be invisible. Children can be cruel. And, sometimes, people who live in the middle of an isolated forest can become writers of immense beauty, honesty and grace.

The first part of Jessie Cole's childhood was a wonderland. Her hippy-ish parents poured out their love on Jessie, her quiet, younger brother and her two mysterious, beautiful and clever half-sisters who came to visit every holidays. They lived in a magical place of their father's making: a property in a forest in Northern New South Wales and Jessie grew up feeling as though the plants and animals in and around her home were all an extension of herself. She had freedom, love, and happiness in abundance. But when Jessie was on the cusp of adolescence a tragedy caused her father, her family and her world to unravel. It was many years before she understood how to put her sadness into words, and work towards a life that wasn't lonely, that wasn't quiet, that wasn't overcome by guilt and fear.

In this profoundly moving and compelling memoir Jessie lays out the details of her life in order to understand the sadness of it. In doing so she gives us a story of beauty and hope, a story about the rivalries, pain and complicated love that is found in families.