The Barley-Child

Fidelma Dunne nursed her dying academic husband, Kevin, and is trying to pick up some literary work, remake a career for herself. Then her mother dies, leaving the question of her paternity ambiguous. At the home town funeral Del is told something that makes her mother's dying statement ring a little truer. She follows up with questioning her older sister, Anne, and a courtesy aunt, her mother's best friend, about the summer before her birth. All the time she is worrying about who she...
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Fidelma Dunne nursed her dying academic husband, Kevin, and is trying to pick up some literary work, remake a career for herself. Then her mother dies, leaving the question of her paternity ambiguous. At the home town funeral Del is told something that makes her mother's dying statement ring a little truer. She follows up with questioning her older sister, Anne, and a courtesy aunt, her mother's best friend, about the summer before her birth. All the time she is worrying about who she is and following leads, she is also trying to establish herself as a researcher and writer. One commissioned task takes her to southern Italy and excerpts of her work, set in medieval Apulia, are included in the narrative. The Barley-child, set over the years 1943 to 1992 and ranging from Sydney to Italy, is one woman's story of trying to rebuild a meaningful life for herself.