Scent of Bergamot

Dragged off as a teenager to live in France with yet another stepdad, Marica thought things had finally settled for her, almost a decade later. Happy in her small Paris apartment, and even though she missed her Gran back in Melbourne, their ritual Sunday afternoon phone calls made up for it; a little.

But when her mother became ill, and then suddenly died, Marica felt she needed to return home, to Melbourne, and her Gran, the only real family she still had. And that should have been the end of it – except for the discovery of the haunting photo of a little girl Marica found in her Gran’s attic. Things only got stranger when the photo was followed by the discovery of two old diaries, which weren’t written in either English or French.

Marica soon embarks on unravelling a family mystery she never knew existed, and a few secrets which maybe should have been left with the dead. Question is, how will Gran react?

Set in Australia, France, and Russia, Scent of Bergamot is a journey of self-discovery told through the eyes of both the main character and the unknown author of diaries written between WWI and WWII.