Worlds Apart

Two women worlds apart ...
one secret that changes everything.

Erin and Laura are cousins and best friends who share a love of languages and travel.

Erin, a French teacher in Dublin, reaches crisis point and drops everything to move to Australia. In Sydney, not only does she land the perfect job, but she meets the perfect man. Finally, her life is falling into place. Except Sydney isn't home, and never can be.

Back in Ireland, Laura is struggling. Her husband appears distant, her work life is spinning out of control and her daughter's strange new nanny is undermining her at every turn. She longs to travel in Erin's footsteps, to drop everything and run far away. But these are dangerous thoughts for a mother and wife.

As Erin and Laura desperately try to find their place in the world, a shocking family secret comes to light, and nothing will ever be the same again.

New York Times, No 1 Bestselling author, Liane Moriarty on World's Apart: It was such a delicious treat to read Worlds Apart! Ber Carroll has given us a cast of warm, engaging characters in a sparkling story that effortlessly crosses the globe between Ireland and Australia. I enjoyed every page of this touching, authentic, contemporary novel.

If you love Maeve Binchy and Cathy Kelly, I can guarantee you’ll love Worlds Apart.

About the Author

Ber Carroll was born in Blarney, a small but famous village in Ireland. The middle child of six, she often retreated from the chaos of family life by immersing herself in books and she has fond memories of the mobile library bus that used to pull up outside their house in Blarney and the dozen or so books she would borrow at a time, some quite inappropriate for her age.

Ber moved to Sydney in 1995 with her then partner now husband, Rob. She got a job as a finance manager in the IT industry and began to climb the corporate ladder. Though very focussed on her career, the exciting and dynamic work environment captured her imagination and inspired her first novel, Executive Affair. When Executive Affair was published, Ber flatly denied that it was in any way auto-biographical. She now admits that the novel did have a lot of her in it, but insists that she did not have an affair with the vice-president of the company, as did the character in the book.

Ber has written three other novels since, Just Business, High Potential and The Better Woman and has been published in five countries. Reflecting her own experience, Ber writes about modern-day women who move back and forth between Ireland and Australia seeking adventure, change of lifestyle or career, and new beginnings. Ber continues to be fascinated with the strong links and contrasts between the two countries, what spurs people to move from one side of the world to the other, what keeps them there or draws them back home, and the notion that distance alone can solve problems and heal wounds.

Ber gave up her finance career when she realised that she couldn’t hold down a demanding job, be mum to two small children and write books to contractual deadline. She now writes fulltime, but says that she misses getting dressed up for work and being around people who listen to what she has to say, unlike her kids! Ber and her family return to Ireland almost every year on their ‘holidays’.