Karrana

Karrana is a fictional town within my novel by that name. It is also a metaphor for Australia coming out of wartime restrictions in the Pacific region. Spring is breaking out of winter's grasp, just as Bridie O'Toole, daughter of a New South Wales dairy farming family Down Under, is celebrating Allied successes at a country dance. She is, along with her country, about to arise like a butterfly from a chrysalis, and to spread her gorgeous wings ready for flight. Will Featherstone, farmer and Bridie's knight on a white stallion, represents physical nature. Born into country ignorance, Bridie is yet to experience passion; when she falls in love with Will from the opposite, well-heeled side of the Karrana River, conflict ensues. Destiny is Bridie's nemesis at the outset, when her inner needs and and her spiritual nature are unfulfilled. Her search for fulfilment takes on special urgency after an accident shakes her to the core and threatens the future of her growing family. Bridie's temperament deems that she wants more from life than lush nature alone, symbolising the situation for Australia at the end of the Second World War. Will Bridie's passion prevail, and will her husband be able to help save the family from disaster in the end?