Some secrets take a lifetime to tell.
An unexpected letter from her childhood friend Grace forces May to relive their extraordinary past and confront the events that drove them apart fifty years earlier.
May’s father won the Diamond Anchor, a dilapidated pub perched on the ocean’s edge, in a game of cards – a gamble which positioned her at the heart of the close-knit community for seventy years, and gave her custody of its stories. Now, trying to maintain a careful balance between the demands of the collapsing building and her own solitary life, May must decide whether to reach out to Grace, whose health is fading, or let her go.
With all the humour and storytelling of small-town life, The Diamond Anchor is a brilliant tale of the places and relationships that define us.
'Mills's shapely novel offers the reader many unexpected rewards, not least the seductive lilt of its prose, the often dour humour of its stories and the attractive self-sufficiency of its main character.' Adelaide Advertiser
'It has a distinct Australian flavour and original voice ...' Bookseller + Publisher
'In the character of the tenacious and stoical May McCabe, Mills has given us a publican with whom it's more than agreeable to spend some time.' Canberra Times
'The Diamond Anchor is a brilliant tale of the places and relationships that define us.' Gleebooks Gleaner
'… the family relationships, the landscape, the importance of the pub and the community and most of all the central love story are described and evoked with great feeling and intensity.' Sydney Morning Herald
'Mills provides a deft, subtle touch in the vernacular between the two women; writing about same-sex love in an era when such affections were difficult to articulate, let alone make public.' Sun Herald
'Deftly, sympathetically and with a wry sureness of tone, she delineates locale, evokes scenery, conjures a community so real its members come and go like familiars, and captures with relish the idiosyncratic speech rhythms of each one of them, from Tick the fisho to Mrs Gowan the schoolteacher. Her novel will appeal to those, and they are many, who find naturalistic Ozlit just the ticket.' Weekend Australian
'Jennifer Mills' first novel is full of crafted and intricate detail … the tension of the emotional landscape propels the reading.' Adelaide Review
