After the Rain

Malti Fortune is uneasy. She has turned away from her birthplace of Fiji to make a new life in Melbourne. But all that she thought was certain is now in danger of being swept away. Her husband, Benjamin, a linguist, is a conundrum. He has changed. Or has she? The stories and superstitions of her childhood are telling her something she knows but doesn't want to hear - about being a trespasser, about not belonging.

In the years to come, Malti and Benjamin's daughters are also to learn some hard truths. For Ellery, the hands-on father of her memories vanishes for months on end and the remembered fragments of good times aren't enough to sustain her anymore. Verona, on the verge of adulthood, can't imagine a world without her beloved Dad. He is her rock and hero. But Malti and Ellery both know that you can't depend on Benjamin.

What makes a family? What does home look like? All three women are seeking answers. Each is haunted by her own ghosts. And by Benjamin. To find what they are looking for, they need to be honest with themselves and make peace with their own unreliable memories.

After the Rain is a moving, exquisitely observed novel about marriage and family, dislocation, culture and belonging, from an exciting new voice in Australian literature.

About the Author

Aisling Smith is a Melbourne-based writer. She was the winner of the 2020 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers. Her writing has appeared in Meanjin online, SWAMP, Verge and Verandah. She has twice been a Verandah Award winner (receiving an Editors' Choice Award in 2011 and a Deakin Literary Award in 2015) and placed third for the 2020 St Kilda Historical Society Short Story Competition. In 2019, Aisling completed a PhD in Literary Studies at Monash University, researching the fiction of David Foster Wallace. In her spare time, she is an aerialist and plays the cello.