UQP, Australia 2026
Cover design Christa Moffat, Christabella Designs
Cover photograph Shutterstock: swapanpriuanka/Sakibulhasan23
This powerful novel by Sally Piper is primarily about homelessness and financial vulnerability in older women. It looks at the way women’s work is undervalued – especially the caring roles of parenting and caring for others, which often leave no room for caring for oneself.
The heroine of this novel is Tina Lamb, a middle-aged woman whose marriage has broken down and whose ex-husband’s financial recklessness has led to the loss of their family home.
Tina blames herself for taking her eye off the family’s finances, but we see all too clearly how she has been worked into her situation by societal expectations and the demands of her day-to-day life, looking after four children as they grew to adulthood and then her dying mother until end of life. Her lack of formal educational qualifications sadly means she is limited in her job options.
Tina’s recourse is to set up what she sees as a temporary home in a caravan park in the suburbs where she can travel without too much inconvenience to her part-time job as a service station assistant.
A financial crisis and the increasing insecurity of her service station hours spur Tina to seek more work and, with some help from her good friend Mon, she comes into the employ of Mrs Bell as a carer/companion.
Interestingly, although Mrs Bell, a former ancient history teacher, is wealthy, she is also vulnerable and lacks a certain amount of control over her life, living as she does in the same house as her son and daughter in law and their two teenage children. While Tina desperately needs this job, and often bites her tongue, she does not entirely bow down to the redoubtable old lady, sometimes offering her opinions.
Mrs Bell, although tyrannical, similarly encourages Tina to be assertive and eventually to take on further study in the arena where she shines.
In this study of vulnerability, we see Tina navigating her way through the demands of her adult children, her ex-husband, the caravan park management and her fellow residents, as well as in the employment arena. She is beset on all sides but is determined to be as independent as she can, reminding herself on many occasions that she does not want to slide back into a position of dependence on a male.
Ultimately, this is a hopeful story despite the trials our Tina experiences. It is a case study of how homelessness and financial desperation can be approached with a different mindset and that there are different solutions to housing insecurity.
Its themes cover ageing and elder abuse, the exercise of power, the troubled dynamics of all families, the attitudes of contemporary society to women (hence the significance of Mrs Bell’s ancient history view of women and their roles and status), misogyny, love and friendship.
That education and hence financial independence matter is a key message, but the story is not without its lighter moments despite these heavy themes. Tina is at times able to smile at her own frailty and the awfulness of everything, and to applaud her own wins.
Amidst the mire of mould and the irritations of being in a fishbowl with a smattering of nosy judgmental neighbours, we also see the strength of the fringe community in which Tina finds herself. We see the human kindness and sensitivity of Tina’s friend Mon, and the caravan park community, and in the end, the capacity of people like Mrs Bell to act ethically if not without a firm layer of self-protection – which, after all, she also needs for survival in her circumstances.
The author’s reference to the real life Sharing with Friends organisation and its novel approach to housing for older women is a timely reminder that this is not entirely a work of fiction. Rather it is story about the human right to shelter and how we as society are failing so many of our citizens who have worked hard and deserve our support and respect.
It’s a deeply affecting work about an increasing scourge in modern Western society. All hail those societies who have embrace workable models of housing for all.
Thank you to UQP for my review copy, to DMCPR for connecting us and to Sally for speaking with me about the highly significant issues raised in this book.