Elise has lived most of her life in the shadow of her sister's disappearance from an Adelaide beach one hot summer's day. Although she was on the beach too, she did not see what happened to Frances. There are no clues, no evidence - just a gaping hole in the life of Elise and her mother, a hole that continues to haunt them both twenty years later.
Elise lives her life desperately blending into the shadows, careful not to be noticed or offer an opinion. She keeps a photo of herself and her sister taken that fateful summer and replays the day in her mind over and over. Her mother Dorothy has become obsessed with missing child stories, buying every newspaper available and cutting out any similar stories.
Closed For Winter is a haunting but powerful story that explores the devastating impact a tragedy has on a family. Even worse than a death is a disappearance with no answers and no resolution. Elise and Dorothy live their lives each locked in their own prison and neither capable of helping the other. I found Elise frustrating at times, but on the other hand I could empathise with her desire to remain invisible and her inability to speak out.
This is a beautifully written book, but I'm not sure I would have connected with the story as well if I had not seen the movie which gave such a powerful visual of the place and characters. I enjoyed the Adelaide setting, as it is a very under represented city in Australian fiction.
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