Act of Grace

From an award-winning author comes an electrifying story of fear and sacrifice, and what people will do to outrun the shadows.

Iraqi aspiring pianist Nasim falls from favour with Saddam Hussein and his psychopathic son, triggering a perilous search for safety. In Australia, decades later, Gerry is in fear of his tyrannical father, Toohey, who has returned from the Iraq War bearing the physical and psychological scars of conflict. Meanwhile, Robbie is dealing with her own father's dementia when the past enters the present.

These characters' worlds intertwine in a brilliant narrative of guilt and reckoning, trauma and survival. Crossing the frontiers of war, protest and reconciliation, Act of Grace is a meditation on inheritance—the damage that one generation passes on to the next, and the potential for transformation.

Act of Grace is a thrilling read. It's a novel that delves into the deepest questions of what it is to be human and expertly weaves hope, love, life and sorrow together in an epic of contemporary life.” – Westerly