THE CONVENT

Behind the Wall is a classic Maureen McCarthy novel that will be devoured by her fans – young women, their sisters, friends, mothers and grandmothers. It is an engrossing saga that follows the hidden and intertwined lives of three young women living in the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne during the 1920s, 1960s and the present day.

The present-day story of Peach (real name Perpetua) weaves all the way through this compulsively readable book. Peach is nineteen and is pretty happy with the way things are. She has her university work, two wildly different best friends, her younger sister to look after and a broken heart to mend – she has just broken up with her boyfriend, who has been pushing her to find out about her real parents (Peach is adopted). But when she takes a summer job at a cafe in the old convent, her idea of who she is takes a sharp turn. Into the past. Meanwhile, her wayward friend Det is pregnant again, but this time is keeping the baby ... Peach's great-grandmother Sadie's story begins in 1915 when her 3-year-old daughter Ellen is taken from her by force to become a ward of the state, living in the convent in Abbotsford, Melbourne. Ellen, raised and educated by the nuns, marries and has a large family of sons - and one daughter. The daughter Cecilia (a young woman in the 1970s) to her father's disgust decides to take her vows and become a nun ... but then also has a child out of wedlock which is given away for adoption. All the women in this story are dealing with questions of femininity, motherhood, relationships, marriage, identity. They are feisty and unforgettable - and the past catches up with all of them ... Warm and real, intense and provocative, Maureen McCarthy's Behind the Wall shows in vivid detail how fate and the choices we make ripple and reverberate through time. Maureen McCarthy’s novels have been shortlisted for numerous awards and include the In Between series, Ganglands; Cross my Heart; Chain of Hearts; Flash Jack; When you Wake and Find me Gone, Rose by any other name, Somebody's Crying and Careful what you wish for. Her much-loved bestseller, Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life was made into a highly successful 4-part mini-series for ABC TV. What makes THE CONVENT extra-powerful is that the characters of Sadie and Ellen are based on Maureen's own grandmother and mother. Sadie in real life also had to give up her little daughter under pressure from the father, and Ellen never saw her again.