The Lost Traveller (VMC)

by Antonia White (Author), Antonia White (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1991

  $3.29

  A brilliant portrait of a young girl's coming of age, The Lost Traveller tells of Clara, the beloved daughter of a devoted though authoritarian father, an imperious mother and the family's devout Catholicism. Father and daughter conduct an intense relationship which seems at odds with their faith, and with the need for Clara to become a woman. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realises that neither parents, nor faith can protect her from change. This is a brilliant, evocative book which stands as a marvellous successor to Antonia White's famous Frost in May.

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $5.43

  When Clara returns home from the convent of her childhood to begin life at a local girls' school, she is at a loss: although she has comparative freedom, she misses the discipline the nuns imposed and worries about keeping her faith in a secular world. Against the background of the First World War, Clara experiences the confusions of adolescence - its promise, its threat of change. She longs for love, yet fears it, and wonders what the future will hold. Then tragedy strikes and her childhood haltingly comes to an end as she realises that neither parents nor her faith can help her.

  The Lost Traveller is the first in the trilogy sequel to Frost in May, which continues with The Sugar House and Beyond the Glass. Although each is a complete novel in itself, together they form a brilliant portrait of a young girl's journey to adulthood.