The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir by Sandie Docker – No choir is about a single voice. It is a blend of voices, each harmonising and complementing the others. It is about belonging!
Sisters Eleanor and Maggie have been running the Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir for fifteen years. During those years the choir has become a haven for the lost and lonely women who have discovered a home in the stately federation house near the lake.
Eleanor has decided to enter the choir into the “All Voices Championship”, knowing that it will give them all a chance to boost their confidence and realise those lost dreams.
Homeless and almost penniless after being widowed with a young son to raise, Hannah arrives in Lyrebird Lake, hoping for a new start. Eleanor soon realises that Hannah’s angelic voice could give the choir a winning edge.
When Eleanor hears Hannah singing a long-forgotten lullaby, however, she is transported to her past. A past that was marred by a harrowing time when two teenage girls were cast out from their Irish homeland to a country far away!
Will Hannah’s arrival help the sisters to repair old wounds? Or will the secret she unwittingly carries tear the sisters apart?
This is both a heart-wrenching and heartwarming novel bringing to light two concerning issues:-
- One is the forced adoption of illegitimate babies in the 70’s and 80’s in Australia and the continuing emotional fallout from those past actions.
- Two is that in 2023 the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that the numbers. regarding older women, were rapidly increasing homelessness!
These subjects, both close to her heart, were the inspiration for Sandie to write this book in order to shed light on these issues and to give a voice to those affected!
A must-read and a call to take action and provide help wherever and whenever possible!
ISBN: 9781761046032
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir by Sandie Docker is available in paperback, e-book and audiobook.
About Sandie Docker
Sandie Docker grew up in Coffs Harbour and first fell in love with reading when her father introduced her to fantasy books as a teenager. Her love of fiction began when she first read Jane Austen for the HSC, but it wasn’t until she was taking a translation course at university that her Mandarin lecturer suggested she might have a knack for writing – a seed of an idea that sat quietly in the back of her mind while she lived overseas and travelled the world. Sandie first decided to put pen to paper (yes, she writes everything the old-fashioned way before hitting a keyboard) when living in London. Now back in Sydney with her husband and daughter, she writes every day.
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