The Maxwell Family Trilogy A sweeping Australian saga tracing the emotional and psychological arc of a family over ninety years — women navigating a man’s world, the long shadow of secrets, and the wounds left by war, silence, and shame. Across three generations, the Maxwell women carry burdens they never chose and keep secrets they never meant to inherit. Eva, the quiet observer who sees more than she can ever say. Lizzy, the resilient saviour fighting for love and autonomy. And, decades later, a young woman whose arrival threatens to unravel everything the family has built.
Book One follows Eva, a gifted artist raised in a grand Melbourne mansion filled with privilege, grief, and silence. Her ability to see people’s “colours” becomes the first secret she hides. Eva learns early that women who don’t conform pay a price. As war tears through her family, she and her nephew Robbie form a bond forged in trauma and loss — a bond that will shape the next generation.
Book Two becomes the love story at the heart of the trilogy: Robbie, wounded and alcoholic, and Lizzy, beautiful, determined, and unwilling to surrender her authority. Their relationship unfolds against the backdrop of mid‑century Melbourne, where forced adoption, social expectations, and the emotional fallout of war shape every choice they make.
Set in Tasmania from 1990, Book Three brings the past crashing into the present. In her final years, Eva faces a new threat: a forceful young woman sent to claim her land. As tensions rise between this outsider and the last of the Maxwell line, old wounds stir, loyalties fracture, and the question of what “family” truly means becomes impossible to ignore.
The Maxwell Family Trilogy is a story of women’s resilience, the cost of silence, the legacy of trauma, and the way secrets echo across time — until the truth demands to be reckoned with.
