Books by Amanda Curtin

What does it mean to live a life in pursuit of art?In 1906, Kathleen O'Connor left conservative Perth, where her famous father's life had ended in tragedy. She had her sights set on a career in thrilling, bohemian Paris. More than a century later, novelist Amanda Curtin faces her own questions, of life and of art, as she embarks on a journey in Kate's footsteps.Part biography, part travel narrative, this is the story of an artist in a foreign land who, with limited resources and despite the impacts of war and loss, worked and exhibited in Paris for over forty years. Kate's distinctive figure paintings, portraits and still lifes, highly prized today, form an inseparable part of the telling.

In 1882 dismembered human remains were discovered at a lonely campsite called 'The Sinkings' near Albany, Western Australia. The surgeon conducting the autopsy claimed they were those of a woman. Why, then, was the victim identified as Little Jock, a sandalwood-cutter and former convict? And why was the murder so brutal, so gruesome? More than a hundred years later, Willa Samson embarks on a search to find out. A recluse after having lost her daughter, Willa is drawn back into the world as she negotiates archives, communicates with family historians, and journeys to Scotland, Northern Ireland and England looking for clues to her questions. The Sinkings is a story within a story, the portrayal of a figure from the margins of history embedded within a contemporary narrative of a mother's guilt and grief. Beautifully crafted, the novel deals with the dilemma confronting parents of an intersexed child and the coming to terms with gender.