Smelling Summer

Smelling Summer is a fictional novel that tells Molly’s story of remembering summer. In its final draft Cate gave it to her mother to read the book created an unprecedented ripple with her mother and amongst Cate’s seven siblings that resulted in her being evicted from her mother’s house in Woolgoolga where Cate wrote the book, the irreparable rift continues. She returns to live in Goolwa Heads a coastal town of Northern New South Wales where she spent time growing up. Molly recounts the story that started 30 years ago, she tells of her losses and gains through the people and events that impact on her life. One single mistake determines how Molly’s life’s journey will travel. Included in this is the life she had with Lewis and Jack and what she lost and now hopes to amend. Part of Molly’s life has been her ever present family who think they know best, but she would rather forget them, they know nothing. By returning now she hopes it is not too late to start again with Lewis and Jack. Living at first in the beach shack and later in the Loft with too many neighbours, through the gossip and the mystics and the invisible people and the Aboriginal Dreaming, Alistair’s Tin Shed, The Bush Dance and The Local Show, her son Billy, and her daughter Lucy’s pending marriage; Molly is trying to write a cookbook for The Newlyweds a wedding present for Lucy. And what does Jack have to say. Ultimately the experiences of the storm and the fire will leave Molly with untold grief and loss and a new respect for life where she and Lewis have the opportunity to start over again. Read more