The Transit of Venus

Reissue of this highly acclaimed Virago title, a 'finely written, beautiful and tragic novel' - Hermione Lee.

Caro, gallant and adventurous, is one of two Australian sisters who have come to post-war England to seek their fortunes. Courted long and hopelessly by young scientist, Ted Tice, she is to find that love brings passion, sorrow, betrayal and finally hope.

The milder Grace seeks fulfilment in an apparently happy marriage. But as the decades pass and the characters weave in and out of each other's lives, love, death and two slow-burning secrets wait in ambush for them.

About the Author

Shirley Hazzard was born in Sydney in 1931. She has worked in Hong Kong, then New Zealand in the High Commissioner's Office. In 1951 she moved to New York where she worked for the United Nations. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Academy Award and the O. Henry Short Story Award.