Tag: sally piper

The Geography of Friendship, by Sally Piper

They haven’t seen each other for years, but here they are, falling onto the same old pattern as though there’s no other worth considering. Maybe it’s more to do with the place they’re walking through. Maybe the land has designs on them – maybe it always had – robbing them of the power to choose alternatives.

It’s been twenty years since they first walked the rail as teens, and twenty years since their friendship fell apart. Now, Samantha, Lisa and Nicole are walking the same trail, in an attempt to salvage something, even though it is clear to at least two of them what its they are trying to salvage.
That first hike was meant to be an adventure, a kind of coming of age in the wilderness, but what happened in those five days changed all of them, and severed their friendship. Will revisiting the scene of those terrible five days really mend their friendship, and will it help each woman to heal the wounds which continue to effect their lives?

The Geography of Friendship is a finely woven story. the use of three perspectives, and the shift bewteen the events of the past, the present and those in the intervening years, could become complicated, but rather makes for a pleasing complexity as the reader gets to know each woman and gradually piece together what has happened.

Absorbing and satisfying.

The Geography of Friendship, by Sally Piper
UQP, 2018
ISBN 9780702259975

Grace's Table, by Sally Piper

Families were like sand dunes, Grace decided. They shifted shape and position with even the gentlest of forces. Even a tiny puff – a shrug – could bring about change, move a handful of thoughts to a new understanding, a new authority. A gale, like today’s, and whole dunes – lives and futures – were relocated, reimagined.

Grace is turning 70 and, rather than a party or a trip to a restaurant, has chosen to cook for her family and friends in her own home. It’s been a long time since she had twelve people at her table, but she’s sure she is up to the culinary challenge. She is perhaps less prepared for the play out of personalities and the memories which surface as she navigates the day. As she confronts a terrible event from her past, she comes to realise how others have been affected, and to reach new  understandings.

Grace’s Table is a heart-filled tale of growing older, confronting the past and moving forward. As Grace celebrates her milestone birthday she also examines the lives of four generations of women – her mother, herself, her adult daughter and her two granddaughters, as well as the female friends who have played a large part in her life. Food too plays a central role in the novel, with traditional dishes such as roast lamb and mint sauce and more exotic delicacies.

In parts gentle, humorous and confrontational, Grace’s Table is a finely baked story.

Grace's Table

Grace’s Table, by Sally Piper
UQP, 2014
ISBN 9780702250040

Available from good bookstores or online.