The Beloved

· Picador Australia
4.2
4 reviews
Ebook
320
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award

"It came one morning with the milk, and it seemed - at first - almost as innocent..."

When Roberta "Bertie" Lightfoot is struck down with polio, her world collapses. But Mama doesn't tolerate self-pity, and Bertie is nobody if not her mother's daughter - until she sets her heart on becoming an artist. Through drawing, the gifted and perceptive Bertie gives form and voice to the reality of the people and the world around her. While her father is happy enough to indulge Bertie's driving passion, her mother will not let art get in the way of the future she wishes for her only daughter.

In 1955 the family moves to post-colonial Port Moresby, a sometimes violent frontier town, where Bertie, determined to be the master of her own life canvas, rebels against her mother's strict control. In this tropical landscape, Bertie thrives amid the lush pallette of colours and abundance, secretly learning the techniques of drawing and painting under the tutelage of her mother's arch rival.

But Roberta is not the only one deceiving her family. As secrets come to light, the domestic varnish starts to crack, and jealousy and passion threaten to forever mar the relationship between mother and daughter.

Tender and witty, The Beloved is a moving debut novel which paints a vivid portrait of both the beauty and the burden of unconditional love.

Winner of the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Emerging Queensland Author 2011

Winner of the Nita B Kibble Literary Awards for Women Writers Kibble Literary Award 2013


Commended for FAW National Literary Awards' Christina Stead Award 2012

Ratings and reviews

4.2
4 reviews
Fathima Safeer
July 26, 2016
Good Story I loved it....,☺
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About the author

Annah Faulkner's debut novel, The Beloved, won the Kibble Literary Award, the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for an Emerging Queensland Author, and was shortlisted for the 2013 Miles Franklin Award.
Annah and her husband lived on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and spend extended time in Tasmania.
Last Day in the Dynamite Factory was her second novel.

Annah past in March 2022.

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