In 1971 the South African
Rugby team came to Brisbane. It was the apartheid
era and local demonstrators were determined
to show the Springboks they weren't
welcome. Near the Tower Mill, a
relic from Brisbane's convict days, they
clashed with police and amid the frenzy an incident
occurs that will reverberate through the life of Susan
Kinnane and her son, Tom, for the next thirty
years.
Their story is told
in equal parts by Susan who recalls herself as a girl and
a young mother, and Tom who, in 2003, comes home from
London to join her at the graveside of a man he
never knew. Does he even know his mother? It is not an easy
question to answer because in the years when a boy most learns
to love his mother, she wasn't there.
The Tower Mill is a
story about anger and grief and the bond between mother and
son, however much it might be strained. Entwined with this
most personal of tales is the political story
of Queensland when names like Bjelke-Petersen and
Fitzgerald prompted an entire state to question what
it valued and believed
in.
Author's commentary about
motivations and themes behind The Tower Mill
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