Kirkus Reviews, Best Historical Fiction list, 2013 One family. Nine momentous days. An unforgettable novel of love and folly and heartbreak. It is 1939 and although Australia is about to go to war, it doesn‚Äôt quite realise yet that the situation is serious. Deep in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Richmond it is business‚Äîyour own and everyone else‚Äôs‚Äîas usual. And young Kip Westaway, failed scholar and stablehand, is living the most important day of his life. Kip‚Äôs momentous day is one of nine that will set the course for each member of the Westaway clan in the years that follow. Kip‚Äôs mother, his brother Francis and, eventually, Kip’s wife Annabel and their daughters and grandson: all find their own turning points, their triumphs and catastrophes, in days to come. But at the heart of all their stories is Kip, and at the centre of Kip‚Äôs fifteen-year-old heart is his adored sister Connie. They hold the threads that will weave a family. In Nine Days Toni Jordan has harnessed all the spiky wit, compassion and lust for life that drew readers in droves to Addition and Fall Girl. Ambitious in scope and structure, triumphantly realised, this is a novel about one family and every family. It is about dreams and fights and sacrifices. And finally, of course, it is‚Äîas it must be‚Äîabout love.