Almost with You

by Elizabeth Coleman

It's 2007. At forty-five, Lisa is fighting growing feelings for Tom that threaten to rob her of Dan, the person she's always loved most in the world. She wants Tom badly, but she can't (or won't) tell him about Dan, and Tom finds himself in a competition that he can't possibly understand. As for Dan, he's a cheeky, exasperating a twenty-year-old who lives in Lisa's house and heart and is steeped in the style and the vibrant music of the British post-punk era. Dan brings Lisa a joy she can't bear to explain, but with her chance for a life with Tom slipping away, she must finally find the courage to let Dan go. It's the most terrifying-and liberating-decision she's made since a fateful night 25 years ago. Taking its title from The Church song, Almost With You is written with Elizabeth Coleman's customary wit, warmth and elegance. With flashbacks to the seventies and eighties lovingly captured, Almost With You is a funny and deeply affecting look at love, loss and letting go.

66 pages, ebook

Published October 1, 2014

About the author

Elizabeth Coleman wrote her first novel when she was seven – that’s if you can call four pages in an old exercise book a novel.

She was a huge Enid Blyton fan and didn’t let the fact that she’d never been out of Australia deter her from writing a story about an English boarding school, full of girls having midnight feasts in the dorm and saying stuff like: ‘I say, we’re off to Cornwall for the hols!’

When her mum and dad gently suggested that she try writing about an Australian school, Elizabeth was appalled. Who cares about an Australian school? Not a midnight feast or a scary but benign matron in sight.

Elizabeth is the author of four published plays, including the smash hits Secret Bridesmaids' Business and It's My Party (And I'll Die If I Want To). Her theatre writing has also appeared in several anthologies. As a screenwriter Elizabeth adapted Secret Bridesmaids' Business into an award-winning ABC telemovie and has written for many of Australia's most popular dramas, including Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and Bed of Roses, which she co-created with Jutta Goetze. Losing the Plot is her first novel.