What an enjoyable read this novel by Catherine Greer is. Written and told in a style that has you cheering from the sidelines and keeping fingers crossed things will work out for the main character.
The bitter sweet bakery café tells the story of middle-aged advertising executive, Audrey Sweetman, who finds not only is she passed up at work for a promotion because her boss favours the younger more glamourous looking Summer, but on the same day, she catches her husband of many years with Charmaine, his much younger assistant. Suddenly Audrey goes from having it all, to having nothing. No job, no husband and no house.
She flees to the small beachside village of Whitehaven Bay where her mother used to take her to as a child. Here she plans to revaluate her situation and work on a plan—decide what to do with her life. But that’s easier said than done. Things have changed in the bay since she was last there and she takes an empty room in a sad state of disrepair above an old run-down bakery.
While Audrey’s husband lives in their home, enjoys a relationship with Charmaine, and is gainfully employed, Audrey is forced to reinvent herself to survive. She does this with the aid of a bunch of eccentric locals she befriends and who rally around her. There’s the cranky pensioner who swims naked every day; the Coffin Cheaters bike gang, the handsome doctor, and the loveable and talented, but very much misunderstood teenager, Billie. Soon, she finds she needs them just as much as they need her.
When it looks like Audrey has finally hit rock bottom, the villagers rally to help her launch a business based on her incredible fortune cookies that tell entertaining, but bitter truths. They’re an unexpected runaway hit. Perhaps Audrey should start a business baking, but could she find the money to support herself and start a business? And then there’s the matter of the police who need to speak to her about an accident and her debts.
In what is Greer’s debut novel, this story is full of characters who made me smile and made me tear up. I’d love to be friends with Audrey, her grit and determination to make things work and to always do right by her friends was inspiring. I look forward to trying some of the recipes in the back of the book and wait patiently for further stories from this author.
Reviewer: Carole Brungar
Allen & Unwin