The Cicada House

A warm, funny and surprising love story about one woman's journey to find out who she really is - as if Richard Curtis watched Seachange, shared a cold beer with Dolly Alderton, and together they wrote The Time Traveller's Wife.

This is a magical love story. Where, despite what I have just told you, the most extraordinary thing to happen is a woman learns to forgive herself.

When Caitlin inherits a significant sum of money on her fortieth birthday, she decides to break the habits of a lifetime and throw caution to the winds. She's about to tell her husband Paul that they're leaving London on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Eat Pray Love their way around the world, only ... she doesn't tell Paul that, because before the candles are lit, he tells her that he's very much in love with someone else. After a drunken night trying to console herself, Caitlin books tickets to Australia - anything to get as far away as possible.

What does the world feel like when it's ending for you, and no-one else? What does life feel like when you are running away from it? This is a story that begins in a way you expect, and ends very far from there. It is a story of creaking English hallways and vast Australian skies. Of hands that feel like warm sandpaper. Cicadas that sing so loudly they drown out the grief. Of white wine and an old piano and children who want their parents back from the dead. It is a magical tale of travel and mystery. And a very human tale of sex and loss and seawater and the primal joy of coming home. This is The Cicada House.

About the Author

Ella Ward has worked in advertising for many years. This means she has a proclivity for profanity and needs help with punctuation. Her words have been published in places like Frankie, Marie Claire and The Sydney Morning Herald. Her memoir, 27 Letters to my Daughter, was published in Australia in 2022 and the US in 2023. Ella lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband, child, pets and neuroses. The Cicada House is her first novel.