Robyn Hogan

The subject of Del’s assignment is proving elusive. (more…)

Del may have located her birth father (more…)

Del holidays with friend Barbara in Southern Italy (more…)

Barry pays a visit (more…)

Del is given a clue as to her father’s identity.  (more…)

Hazel tells Del some happenings the summer before her birth. (more…)

Del talks to Anne and thinks of her father and meeting Kevin. (more…)

Del is trying to re-build a career; she has an admirer.
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Mrs Dunne’s funeral. Del meets up with an old school friend.
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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 re-build a meaningful life for herself.