Silver Linings

Nettie Sweeney has a dad, three big sisters, a farm full of cows and a cat called Mittens. But it's not enough. She longs for a mother. One with a gentle touch and sparkles in her eyes. Instead, she has Aunty Edith with slappy hands, a sharp tongue and the disturbing belief that peas are proper food.

When Dad marries Alice, all Nettie's dreams come true. The Sweeney home overflows with laughter, love and, in time, a baby brother. Billy. The light of Nettie's life.

Then tragedy strikes. The Sweeney family crumbles. Nettie tries to make things right, but has she made everything so much worse?

From multi-award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad comes a heartbreakingly beautiful and uplifting historical novel. Life and death. Weddings and floods. Coronation joy and post-war grief. Nettie Sweeney and her community experience it all. Together. With humour, kindness and love.

SOME OF KATRINA NANNESTAD'S AWARDS

The Girl Who Brought Mischief - Winner of the 2014 NSW Premier's Literary Award for Children's Literature (The Patricia Wrightson Prize)

We Are Wolves - Winner of the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize (Children and Young Adult)

Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief - Winner of the 2022 ARA Historical Novel Prize (Children and Young Adult) and Winner of the 2022 ABA Booksellers' Choice Book of the Year Awards (Children's)

About the Author

Katrina Nannestad is a multi-award-winning Australian author. Her books include the CBCA-shortlisted We Are Wolves, The Girl Who Brought Mischief, the Travelling Bookshop series, the Girl, the Dog and the Writer series, the Olive of Groves series, the Red Dirt Diaries series, the Lottie Perkins series, and the historical novels Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief and Waiting for the Storks.

Katrina grew up in country New South Wales in a neighbourhood stuffed full of happy children. Her adult years have been spent raising boys, teaching, daydreaming and pursuing her love of stories. Katrina celebrates family, friendship and belonging in her writing. She also loves creating stories that bring joy or hope to other people's lives.

Katrina now lives on a hillside in central Victoria with her husband, a silly whippet called Olive and a mob of kangaroos.