Hard Joy: life and writing (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780645247916)

This compelling memoir of Susan Varga's life spans seven decades and circles between Australia and Europe, activism and seclusion, everyday life and the writing life.

She was born into war-torn Budapest but her family escaped loss and trauma to make a new life in Sydney. Susan makes another escape, from the narrow confines of suburbia into the arms of the exciting and contradictory world of the Sydney Push. As a young woman she lives in London, Paris, Bendigo and Holland, before returning to Sydney, keen to take part of Gough Whitlam's reformist agenda, in a powerful time of change.

Yet Susan also spends a long time lost in the wilderness, wrestling with the raft of dilemmas of the life of a woman. When she finally commits to the demands and joys of writing, and to a surprising love, her life assumes a new harmony. Fate then intervenes to throw up major challenges, testing her will to re-find the hard joys of life.

In this memoir, Susan Varga moves through the intersections between her own life and the wider world, with an incisive portrait of our times.