Keeping Faith

In Keeping Faith the innocence and certainties of childhood are delicately tested against the realities of adult life. Josh and Gracie grow up in a working class world centred on the values of faith and family. Both cherish their father, a lay preacher, and their mother, but for Josh the complex secrets, doubts and subtleties of the world do not allow for certainty. In adulthood he works as a labour ward attendant, his younger sister Gracie as a nurse on a remote mission station in Papua New Guinea. While Josh’s conviction falters, the unfailing faith of his sister leads to tragic consequences. As events move between 1975 and 1994, between a family drama in outer suburban Melbourne and a tribal rebellion in Melanesia, faith and doubt become entwined. In the spirit of the work of Tim Winton, Keeping Faith is a remarkable novel about the beauty and disappointments of childhood, family and belief, about losing faith and finding love. ‘Subtle and finely crafted. A novel of intellectual and emotional intensity.’ Steven Carroll, author of The Time We Have Taken