Friends & Mothers (May 2007, Thomas Dunne Books, USA) (published in Australia in May 2003 by Pan Macmillan Australia under the title, Dying for Cake )

Synopsis 

Five women, all of them mothers, meet regularly for coffee. Their lives are consumed by children, school drop-offs and casual conversations until the day that Evelyn's baby disappears.

Now Evelyn is in a psychiatric hospital refusing to utter a word and, as her friends come to terms with their loss, they begin to experience desires that they had previously suppressed.

Joanna is dying for cake, Clare is longing to paint again, Susan wants to make up for lost time and Wendy wants to escape the past. And what about Evelyn? No one knows what she wants. But strangely, she doesn't seem to want her baby back...

This is a contemporary story about different ways of mothering, the importance of self-realisation for women and the extraordinary strength of love.

To read an excerpt from the first chapter of the book, click here (part 1) and here (part 2).

You can watch a video clip of me talking about the book on the 'Appearances' page .

To read the story about how the book was written, click here .

You can purchase this book from Amazon by clicking on the link below:

Praise for Friends & Mothers

"Limerick writes in her own unique style and voice... From page one, you'll feel as if you're a part of this cache of mothers and friends and want desperately to be let in on their secrets and their theories about what has happened to Amy."

Rocky Mountain News

"... a great read... a thoroughly diverting book that plunges us wholeheartedly into the lives of its five characters: all mothers of young children, but all different from one another... her depictions of the minutiae of raising children are lovingly realistic but not overly sentimental... this novel is essentially about the validity of different ways of mothering, and the importance of self-fulfilment for women, however that is gained ."

The Age

  "Where Limerick's writing shines is in her buoyant evocation of the sticky, constant, exasperating and loving realm of small children and their carers. There are many such delicious scenes in this novel..."                     

The Weekend Australian

  "... honest, original, thoughtful, emotional, mature and suspenseful..."                

Sydney Morning Herald

"Limerick has a real knack for capturing the small triumphs and tragedies of everyday life. While working within the constraints of genre fiction, Limerick has a passion and a tenderness for her characters that won us over"                  

Sydney Morning Herald Judging Panel,  Best Young Australian Novelists 2004

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For information about my short stories, click here .

To read about my journey in writing a second novel, click here.