What if Elizabeth Macarthur - wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in early Sydney - had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? In her introduction Kate Grenville tells, tongue firmly in cheek, of discovering a long-hidden box containing that memoir. What follows is a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented. Grenville's Elizabeth Macarthur is a passionate woman managing her complicated life - marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her own heart, the search for power in a society that gave her none - with spirit, cunning and sly wit. Her "memoir" reveals the dark underbelly of the polite world of Jane Austen. It explodes the stereotype of the women of the past - devoted and docile, accepting of their narrow choices. At the heart of this book is one of the most toxic issues of our times - the seductive appeal of false stories. Beneath the surface of Elizabeth Macarthur's life and the violent colonial world she navigated are secrets and lies with the dangerous power to shape reality.

NSW Premier's Literary Award winner 2021
NSW Premier's Literary Award Shortlist 2021
ABIA shortlist 2021
Age Book of the year shortlist 2021
ARA Historical Novel Prize longlist 2021