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One Small Life
Suspense and secrets in the 1920s, on a heartbreaking journey to find true home.
Grace Anderson is an outsider, abandoned as a baby. She thinks the job at the orchard by the ocean, about as far south as you can get in Australia, is her big chance. Instead it’s set to break her.
Trapped and scared, she escapes to a remote maritime community, where kindness is a mask – but for what? In her darkest hour, she’s confronted with the disturbing truth about the family she’s never known. It shatters what she believes about herself and the people she’s come to trust.
It’s a truth that won’t leave her alone. She must face a choice that will change everything. Despite the hurt and despair, what she does next will determine what kind of woman she really is and whether she can heal or stay forever broken.
A powerful story about courage, love, and the decisions that shape us and the direction of our lives when we least expect it.
“I just could not put it down, it gave me many late nights.”
“Mesmerising.”
“… love every moment of this fantastic story … read this book, that lets you experience a strong will of survival despite impossible difficulties.”
“Narrative is beautifully spare. I was immediately engaged and intrigued …”
Grace Anderson is an outsider, abandoned as a baby. She thinks the job at the orchard by the ocean, about as far south as you can get in Australia, is her big chance. Instead it’s set to break her.
Trapped and scared, she escapes to a remote maritime community, where kindness is a mask – but for what? In her darkest hour, she’s confronted with the disturbing truth about the family she’s never known. It shatters what she believes about herself and the people she’s come to trust.
It’s a truth that won’t leave her alone. She must face a choice that will change everything. Despite the hurt and despair, what she does next will determine what kind of woman she really is and whether she can heal or stay forever broken.
A powerful story about courage, love, and the decisions that shape us and the direction of our lives when we least expect it.
“I just could not put it down, it gave me many late nights.”
“Mesmerising.”
“… love every moment of this fantastic story … read this book, that lets you experience a strong will of survival despite impossible difficulties.”
“Narrative is beautifully spare. I was immediately engaged and intrigued …”
254 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2019
87 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Anna Housego
7 books8 followersAnna is a former journalist, worked in an outback pub in crocodile country, was a political adviser, and a communications consultant.
She grew up in a small wilderness town full of eccentrics and colourful characters and now lives near the Southern Ocean in Tasmania, a small island below the south-eastern corner of Australia. Her two grown-up children and their families are nearby.
She writes character-driven fiction with an historical bent and recently released her fifth book, The Two Wives of Cuddy Ranse. Her debut novel, praised for its gripping story and compelling style, is The Way to Midnight, a 1930s mystery that resonates today. It was inspired by a true family scandal that she researched for almost a decade. Find out what it takes to dig up a family secret, with your free copy of Disgrace: Uncovering a Family Scandal, available at www.annahousego.comRatings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 4, 2019
I loved this book! I was captivated from beginning to end. The author has a lovely writing style. I would recommend it
April 6, 2023
3.5* Life in Tazmania
The author wrote a superb book about life in Tazmania - at the bottom of the world and surrounded by most violent seas on Earth. The depth of descriptions about the environment, family and work life and acceptance of tragedy was phenomenal. I could have done without the birth scene and could have welcomed more descriptions of mental health and medical care to a sparsely populated isolated people. The author dropped a carrot but then took too much time to get back to the carrot. Even when the author came back to family of origin history, she spent very few words describing the events. This would make a good movie or mini series.
I'll will download her third book now.
I would recommend to a limited audience of mostly females.
The author wrote a superb book about life in Tazmania - at the bottom of the world and surrounded by most violent seas on Earth. The depth of descriptions about the environment, family and work life and acceptance of tragedy was phenomenal. I could have done without the birth scene and could have welcomed more descriptions of mental health and medical care to a sparsely populated isolated people. The author dropped a carrot but then took too much time to get back to the carrot. Even when the author came back to family of origin history, she spent very few words describing the events. This would make a good movie or mini series.
I'll will download her third book now.
I would recommend to a limited audience of mostly females.
July 25, 2024
This book was written with such stellar starkness and candor. It never flinched from how heartbreaking and earth shattering traumatic events can be and how those ripples spread throughout a whole life. But even with the acknowledgment of that grief and pain, there was still the clear representation of the joys, relationships, and simple pleasures that build a life.
July 17, 2025
needs a sequel
I would like to see where this is going. Grace had a lot to contend with in her young life. Trigger warning: she seemed to accept repeated rape as her lot. That was the only thing I didn’t like about this book.
I would like to see where this is going. Grace had a lot to contend with in her young life. Trigger warning: she seemed to accept repeated rape as her lot. That was the only thing I didn’t like about this book.
September 18, 2020
Pleased to read about Tasmania and places I’m familiar with.
December 23, 2024
This author seems to know so much about the lasting effects of early deprivations both emotional and material. Wonderfully and deeply felt, and written, so relatable. I just love her stories!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews