House of Fiction

the long version

"Susan Swingler is the stepdaughter of one of Australia's most revered writers - Elizabeth Jolley. Abandoned by her father, Leonard, at the age of four, Susan had no contact with the Jolley family until they found and reclaimed her at the age of 21. Why they were kept apart is the subject of this startling new memoir. The House of Fiction tells the story of Swingler's quest to find her father. As she painstakingly traces clues to a better understanding of Leonard, she inadvertently unravels an intricate fiction created by Elizabeth to protect those she loves. A story that sheds a new and surprising light on one of Australia's most important writers, it is also an intimate and deeply moving memoir of a daughter's quest to discover her absent father"--Publisher's description.