ABOUT THE EVENT:

Stories about mothers and children are powerful. They are stories about love, about the gentleness (and cruelty) and resilience (and weakness) of human beings, and the enduring hope that connects generations. Mother Shadow is that kind of story. And Cynthia Banham has written it like a thriller.

On Thursday 30th April at The East Village Hotel, Balmain, join Cynthia Banham in conversation with Paul Daley.

Copies of Mother Shadow will be available for purchase at the venue through Roaring Stories, with Banham signing copies after the discussion.

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ABOUT THE VENUE

Affectionately nicknamed ‘The EVH’ by Balmain locals, the East Village Hotel are proudly ‘pokie free’, dog friendly, and the only remaining hotel in East Balmain. Super conveniently located, only 100m from the East Balmain Ferry (or 2 minute's walk), they are also only one ferry ride from Barangaroo!

Attendees are asked to arrive at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Seating is unallocated – another reason to arrive early to secure an optimal spot. Why not make a full evening of it, too, by ordering a meal at the EVH before or after the event? To make a dinner reservation before or after the event, simply click on the restaurant reservation link here .

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Mother Shadow opens with the uncovering of a family secret. The author’s great-grandmother was not an orphan, as she’d been told, but a foundling, relinquished at birth by a mother who ‘did not consent to be named’. The discovery of the abandoned baby in her maternal line triggers a passionate and indignant reaction as she asks: what kind of a mother would relinquish her child? It also triggers a painful personal memory of the day she dropped her baby after falling backwards in her wheelchair and realised her worst fear. That her broken body, permanently injured in a plane crash in her early 30s, could not be trusted to protect her baby.

Troubled by her rush to judgement of her ancestor, the author becomes fixated on uncovering the mother’s identity and piecing together the fragments of her life, a quest that takes her and her family to Bologna. As she comes to understand the series of tragic events that compelled her ancestor to abandon her baby, she wonders if the compulsion to make sense of the woman’s act is linked to the overwhelming sense of inadequacy that haunts her because she is unable to mother according to the standards she has set for herself.

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ABOUT CYNTHIA BANHAM

Cynthia Banham is a full-time writer and part-time habitat gardener.

Previously, she worked as a lawyer, journalist and academic. She spent two decades in Canberra, initially working in the Parliament House press gallery and later completing a PhD on human rights law and politics at the Australian National University. Since returning to Sydney, she has become immersed in restoring her manicured garden into a wilder place of refuge for frogs, lizards, insects, and small birds.

Among the many losses Cynthia suffered after surviving a plane crash with life-changing injuries was a connection to nature. In her twenties and thirties, she had trekked through the South American Andes, the Himalayas twice, and ran three marathons. The loss of mobility was devastating. Through habitat gardening, she has found a way to reclaim some of that: she can no longer move easily through nature, but nature can move around her.

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ABOUT PAUL DALEY

Paul Daley is an author, journalist, essayist and short story writer. His books have been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s History Prize and ACT Book of the Year. He has won two Walkley Awards and the National Press Club Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism. His essays have appeared in Meanjin and Griffith Review, and he writes ‘Postcolonial’, a column for The Guardian about Australian national identity, history and Indigenous culture. His literary novel Jesustown was published to great acclaim in 2022.

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TERMS & CONDITIONS

Refunds

Please note that tickets are non-refundable unless the event is cancelled or postponed due to extenuating circumstances. Refunds are not issued within 48 hours notice of event date. Humanitix fee is nonrefundable.

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This event is presented by Roaring Stories Bookshop Balmain and Upswell Publishing.

With thanks to our venue partner The East Village Hotel Balmain.

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Contact the host of Cynthia Banham in conversation with Paul Daley

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