The fence (MP3)

Book excerpt: Gwen Hill has lived on Green Valley Avenue all her adult life. Here she brought her babies home, nurtured her garden and shared life's ups and downs with her best friend and neighbour, Babs. So when Babs dies and the house next door is sold, Gwen wonders how the new family will fit settle into this cosy community. Francesca Desmarchelliers has high hopes for the house on Green Valley Avenue. It's a clean slate for Frankie, who has moved her brood from Sydney's inner city to the leafy north shore street in a bid to save her marriage and keep her rambunctious family together. To maintain her privacy and corral her wandering children, Frankie proposes a fence between their properties, destroying Gwen's lovingly cultivated front garden. Soon the neighbours are in an escalating battle that becomes about more than just council approvals, and boundaries aren't the only things at stake.