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Bernadette Jiwa
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Bernadette Jiwa
AUS EDITION
AUS EDITION
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Praise

An absorbing, brilliantly paced book; I didn't want it to end.

- Roddy Doyle

The Making of Her sucked me in from the very first page, and didn’t let up until I’d turned the last. Heart-warming and heart-breaking, it is an exquisite examination of the secrets that haunt us. I cried several times. A stunning debut.

- Sally Hepworth

Bernadette Jiwa writes with compassion and grace about what it means to be a mother, a daughter and a sister.

- Pip Williams

Oh how I love this novel! Once I started reading I never looked away, except when my eyes filled with tears. The Making of Her renders its characters so perfectly, and with so much compassion, they feel like dear friends after only a few chapters. Bernadette Jiwa has written a beautiful tribute to what our lives can become when shame is forgotten, and love is reclaimed.

- Nina de Gramont

Bernadette Jiwa’s moving fiction debut, The Making of Her, explores the impact of secrets, the magnitude of our choices, and the tenuous binds of family. Set in Dublin and shifting between past and present, this deeply evocative novel is a masterful study into what it really means to love, and to forgive. The Making of Her is ultimately a story about the plight and power of women, and is not to be missed.

- Karma Brown

THE MAKING OF HER is a compelling and tender exploration of the unattainable expectations of women, the shame and guilt inherent in motherhood, and the reverberations of the hardest choices we make. Jiwa gives us a beautifully crafted, thought-provoking novel that ultimately celebrates the strength of women. A true pleasure to read.

- Ashley Audrain

About the Book

THE MAKING OF HER is a page-turning mother-daughter love story, spanning three decades from the 1960s to 1990s, charting one woman’s journey to escape the legacy of the society that shaped her.

‘An absorbing, brilliantly paced book; I didn’t want it to end.’ Roddy Doyle

People were forever telling her how lucky she was. But what did people know?

Dublin 1966. When Joan Quinn, a factory girl from the Cranmore Estate, marries Martin Egan, it looks like her dreams have come true. But all is not as it seems.

Joan lives in the shadow of a secret – the couple’s decision to give up their first daughter for adoption only months before.

For the next three decades, Joan’s marriage and her relationship with her second child Carmel suffer as a consequence.

Then one day in 1996, a letter arrives from their eldest daughter. Emma needs her birth parents’ help; it’s a matter of life and death. And the fragile facade of Joan’s life finally begins to crack.

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Available June 2022

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Imprint : Bantam Australia
Pages : 352
ISBN : 9781761045004
ISBN-10 : 1761045008
Publisher : Random House Australia
Category : Historical fiction , General Fiction

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Maeve Binchy is a legend in Irish literature. Her Maeve Binchy is a legend in Irish literature. Her storytelling not only entertained —it held our culture in all its loveliness, flaws and all, up to the light.

As a teenager growing up in Dublin, I devoured her books, and today I couldn’t be more thrilled to get news of a *starred* review from Booklist for THE MAKING OF HER alongside her name.

I'm cracking open my copy of CIRCLE OF FRIENDS to celebrate. 💫
This is the only photograph I have of my grandmoth This is the only photograph I have of my grandmother Ellen Slevin. She died in childbirth aged just 38, following the delivery of a healthy son—her 11th child.

The year was 1951, and without reproductive rights, the women of Ireland were subjected to a form of slavery, because as @therealmargaretatwood said recently in the @guardian, they were forced to bear children whether they had the will or the wherewithal to raise them.

When women are deprived of their right to choose the detrimental effects ripple through society for generations.

We assume that progress is linear. But history can repeat itself if we let it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/07/enforced-childbirth-is-slavery-margaret-atwood-on-the-right-to-abortion
History can repeat itself if we let it. Words by History can repeat itself if we let it.

Words by Eavan Boland to inspire women across generations and oceans today.

https://youtu.be/WXtHuSrnviU
Winter light Winter light
Market day Market day
The best kind of book mail, another book of the br The best kind of book mail, another book of the brilliant Lucy Caldwell’s short stories to add to my collection. 

Her beautiful stories about motherhood are little jolts to the heart.
So long Sydney So long Sydney
A whistle-stop trip to Sydney this weekend to meet A whistle-stop trip to Sydney this weekend to meet and thank the booksellers who champion Australian authors day in, day out. 🙏🏼 

Special thanks to Jon and Tara at @dymockssydney. 

James @gleebooks, Jordan @abbeysbookshop and Grace @dymocksbroadway 

Signed copies of THE MAKING OF HER are available in these GREAT bookstores. 🧡
Sunrise in the pretty city. 🧡#sydney Sunrise in the pretty city. 🧡#sydney
 A huge thank you to @applebooks for choosing T  A huge thank you to @applebooks for choosing THE MAKING OF HER as a What to Read This Month pick. 

If you're in the ANZ region, you can get your copy of the ebook or the audiobook here. 🧡

apple.co/WhatToReadThisMonth
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