JOANNA STEPHEN-WARD

AUTHOR

EUMERALLA

My second novel is Eumeralla which is a wheat and sheep property in the Queensland outback owned by the Mitchell family. They live in a house that is unchanged from the time it was built seventy years before. Although it is 1972 they have no gas or electricity, they cook on a wood burning stove and use oil lamps. They eat their meals on the veranda most of the year. Their primitive toilet is fifty yards away from the house.
The family on Eumeralla have to deal with the threat from dangerous snakes and spiders, droughts, bushfires or floods. Wheat and wool prices control their livelihood. But for Greg and Eleanor Mitchell these are minor worries compared to the family secret they are desperate to keep from their children, but death intervenes. Fifty miles away Keith and Gabriella Clarkson clear out their mother’s house when she dies. They find letters and photographs that arouse their curiosity. They visit Eumeralla and discover the secret. The consequences bring disaster to every member of the family.

Eumeralla is divided into three parts. The Secret, The Prophecy, The Truth. It is about grief, family feuds and the lies people tell to protect themselves from the pain they imagine will result from the truth.

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