The happiness jar / Samantha Tidy

Nature has the power to restore us, but can it wash away our darkest truths? Set amid the red dust and heat of the Australian Kimberley wet season and the smoky backdrop of the holy river Ganges in India, this is a novel about rebirth and remembrance. Brian, a Vietnam veteran, has been missing for twenty years. Matt dreams of one day finding his own path like his heroic father, as Beth's religious fervour propagates a childhood of parental disappointment. Losing her battle with Cystic Fibrosis, Rachel Hudson asks her family for one last request: a journey to the exotic and the unknown. Ever the free spirit, she administers a dose of her notorious wanderlust. The Happiness Jar reveals the power of letting go of the memories that we think sustain us. It's a story about tightly held beliefs, the fragility of family and how quickly faith can fold when we release the burdens we place on ourselves and each other.