SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024

The international bestselling author of The Secret River andA Room Made of Leaves returns with a fictionalised account of her grandmother?slife, commemorating a strong female character making the best out of the timesand society she was born in.

Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century,when society?s long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determinedwomen. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dollyspends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children donot deter her from searching for love and independence.

Restless Dolly Maunder is a subversive, triumphant tale of apioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, whois able ? despite the cost ? to make a life she could call her own.