Secrets

A gripping family saga about three generations fractured by secrets, and the three strong women who must bring them into the light.

Ruth, the widowed matriarch of a grown family, has a secret she’s kept for sixty years. Now she has only months to live, and her secret is weighing more heavily than ever.

Forced to give up her baby for adoption in 1950s Queensland, Ruth began a new life and family in New South Wales. On her rural property, solace came also from the native garden she established around the old homestead, ‘Cora’, and from the wildlife it harboured. Then, in the final days of her husband’s life, she found renewed strength in an unexpected reconnection with her lost daughter.

Ruth’s second family know nothing of their sibling, and as Ruth learns, the longer something has remained hidden, the harder it is to bring it out of the shadows. But she needs to put things right before she dies. She must address the past, present and future: reveal her secret, reconcile her family, and find a way to keep Cora in the family and the family in Cora.

A sweeping saga spanning more than half a century, Secrets turns an insightful lens on racism, trauma, addiction, incarceration, loss and shame. At times heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting, it is a spirited, compassionate novel full of unforgettable characters, and a testament to the power of truth-telling and the possibility of healing.

About the Author

Judi Morison has Gamilaroi and Celtic heritage and lives on Gumbaynggirr Country. She has completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney, and her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies. A member of the Ngana Barangarai (Black Wallaby) Indigenous Literary Project, she has had a long involvement with Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre and leads the Emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writers Mentoring Program for South Coast Writers Centre. Secrets is her first novel, and in manuscript it won the 2022 Boundless Indigenous Mentorship, provided by Writing NSW and Text Publishing. Judi enjoys learning and using her Gamilaraay language.