The latest book by The Wakes author Dianne Yarwood started its life as a biographical account of one Australian woman’s search for her birth family, and the truth at the heart of the story resonates through the gentle and moving novel it became.
At seven months of age, Maggie was surrendered to a Melbourne convent, before being adopted and raised in a loveless household. When her adoptive mother dies, she finds herself investigating the truth of her life before her birth mother left.
We first meet Maggie and her friend Anna, who are in their forties, answering calls at the fictional Channel 5 in the early 2000s. There Maggie announces she will not be attending the funeral of the cruel woman who raised her, opening the door for their work-relationship to evolve into a deeper friendship.
Anna’s life is more conventional. She has a loving relationship with her own mother, who misses her terribly. UK-born Anna moved to Australia after meeting her husband, Andy, and now that they have children and busy lives, England feels very far away.
Maggie has built a peaceful existence for herself with her work at the station, her dog, Brian, and her handsome new boyfriend, Richard. Bit by bit, Anna learns more about Maggie’s past. Her adoptive mother was adulterous and mean, and when Maggie finally took a stand, she was packed off to a convent.
Through her relationship with Richard, we see how the abandonment shaped Maggie’s personality, and her insecure attachment style. There’s a rhythm to her quiet life, and though she tries to be brave, and build something more, she finds it difficult to trust others. It is Anna, not Richard, who teaches Maggie to have faith in people.
When Maggie does embark upon the search for her past, she does so hesitantly and we see as she progresses that she was right to want to protect her fragile heart. As the details begin to emerge, the story moves back in time. Maggie’s parents were European migrants who fled to Australia after World War II. In some of the most interesting and evocative passages of the novel, Dianne recreates the Bonegilla Migrant camp, near Bendigo, and the tight-knit migrant communities that sprung from it with vivid empathy.
Dianne leads the reader through Maggie’s emotional, slow, and sometimes painful experience of excavating her past. The characters are layered and complicated humans, whose pathways through life are full of wrong turns and disappointments. Redemption is found in small acts of friendship. Margaret, Are You Leaving? is a gentle tale of the relationships in a person’s life and how they shape who we become. Dianne shows how a broken heart can break further, and small acts of friendship and generosity, can help repair it again.
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