Finding Joy in Oyster Bay

From the author of the bestselling Sleepless in Stringybark Bay, this new book celebrates life, love, community and the power of forgiveness.

When former journalist turned café owner Kate Jackson abandons her six-month-old baby and disappears without a word, the quirky offshore community of Cook's Basin quickly steps in to salvage a delicate and difficult situation.

But even the best intentions can go horribly awry.

Relationships are tested, loyalties divided and the future of the beloved Briny Café, the beating heart of the community, comes under threat.

It takes a group of bossy retirees to navigate the brittle twists and turns of the grim past to point the way towards a hopeful future.

Wrapped in the colourful culture of a boat-access community, Finding Joy in Oyster Bay, the final book in the Cook's Basin series, celebrates life, love, community and the power of forgiveness.

Susan Duncan spent her childhood in country Victoria where her father was supply officer for the Bonegilla Migrant Camp. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Melton, near Melbourne, to run a country pub where a rousing sing-along around the piano on a Saturday night was a lot of fun. After completing her secondary education at Clyde, Woodend, a girls' boarding school, she took up a cadetship on the Melbourne Sun which led to a 25-year career spanning radio, newspapers and magazines.

Susan quit journalism after her brother and husband died within three days of each other and eventually wrote the best-selling memoir, Salvation Creek, about grief and loss and finding a place to belong. Later branching into fiction, the underlying themes of her writing remained constant - good communities create a sense of belonging and lead to contentment. She now alternates between boats on Pittwater and raising cattle at Wherrol Flat with her second husband, Bob, writing occasionally for The Australian Women's Weekly.