Barbara Mutch - Free Library Land Online - LGBT

The Case Against Fili Du Bois

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:06:37 +0300

The Fire Portrait

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:25:05 +0300

I've taken risks in my life. Some have been physical ones, but some have been bolder and required more of myself.
When Englishwoman Frances McDonald sets up home in a remote South African hamlet in the shadow of the Hex River Mountains, she is regarded with suspicion by the community. Confined by a marriage of convenience, she seeks an outlet by learning the local language, teaching art, and exhibiting her paintings of the stunning veld landscape. Soon the spectre of war threatens to divide not only the country but the town itself and scupper Frances' hard-won acceptance.
While her husband leaves to fight for the Allies, Frances chances to meet a former love. The bright joy of that unexpected reunion is clouded by a day that will change her life. Out of the smoke and ash of a shocking fire, she is propelled on a journey that will take her from the arid veld to the bright lights of London and beyond.

The Housemaid's Daughter

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:43:39 +0200

Barbara Mutch's stunning first novel tells a story of love and duty colliding on the arid plains of Apartheid-era South Africa When Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa, she knows that she does not love the man she is to marry there —her fiance Edward, whom she has not seen for five years. Isolated and estranged in a small town in the harsh Karoo desert, her only real companions are her diary and her housemaid, and later the housemaid's daughter, Ada. When Ada is born, Cathleen recognizes in her someone she can love and respond to in a way that she cannot with her own family.Under Cathleen’s tutelage, Ada grows into an accomplished pianist and a reader who cannot resist turning the pages of the diary, discovering the secrets Cathleen sought to hide. As they grow closer, Ada sees new possibilities in front of her—a new horizon. But in one night, everything changes, and Cathleen comes home from a trip to find that Ada has disappeared, scorned by her own community. Cathleen must make a choice: should she conform to society, or search for the girl who has become closer to her than her own daughter? Set against the backdrop of a beautiful, yet divided land, The Housemaid's Daughter is a startling and thought-provoking novel that intricately portrays the drama and heartbreak of two women who rise above cruelty to find love, hope, and redemption.**

The Girl from Simon's Bay

Fri, 11 Nov 2016 22:16:17 +0200

A seashell and a sealed letter form a tenuous connection to a forbidden wartime romance1937. Simon's Town is a vibrant and diverse community in a picturesque part of the Union of South Africa, with a Royal Navy port at the town's heart. Louise Ahrendts, daughter of a shipbuilder, nurtures the dream of becoming a nurse and in a world of unwritten, unspoken rules about colour, she has the strength to make it a reality. As the port becomes a hub of activity following the outbreak of the Second World War, Louise crosses paths with a man she is determined to be with – despite all the obstacles life and conflict throw in their way. But when a new troubled moment of history dawns, can they find their way back to each other?