Restless Dolly Maunder
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 | |
| Author | Kate Grenville |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | Text (Australia and New Zealand) Canongate (rest of world) |
Publication date | 18 July 2023 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-9227-9065-1 |
Restless Dolly Maunder is a 2023 novel by Australian author Kate Grenville. The novel is a fictionalised story based on the life of her maternal grandmother, the titular Dolly Maunder, who was born in New South Wales at the end of the 19th century.
Grenville said the book came from seeing old photos of her female ancestors and "[wanting] to rescue one of them from those impassive silent images and bring her to life".[1] She was also prompted to write her grandmother's story after her mother asked shortly before her death: "Why did my mother never love me?".[2] The novel is a companion to One Life: My Mother's Story, Grenville's 2015 non-fiction account of her mother Nancy's life.[3]
Plot
Dolly Maunder is born in 1881 to a poor farming family in Currabubula, New South Wales. She loves school and looks up to her female teacher but once she is 14, she has to leave school to work at home under her controlling and violent father who prevents her from becoming a pupil-teacher.[3][4] Dolly marries Bert Russell and they move off the farm, first to Gunnedah then to state's cities, running different businesses and pushed by Dolly's ambition. Bert is unfaithful but believes in Dolly's abilities and teaches her to drive, giving her newfound freedom.[4][5] They make enough to send their children to private school and Dolly has high ambitions for her own daughter Nancy which leads to a strained relationship.[6] When the Great Depression begins and business suffers, Dolly and Bert end up moving back to a rural farm.[5] After the Second World War, Dolly moves in with Nancy, now a hospital pharmacist and married to a solicitor, and helps to care for her three grandchildren,[6] including Cathy, a five-year-old Grenville.[7]