The Dressmaker

Sometime in the 1950s, Tilly Dunnage, a Paris couturier, returns to her home town of Dungatar in rural Australia, having left under a black cloud of vicious accusations when she was a child. She plans only to visit her tragically mad mother Molly, but ends up staying longer than planned. Tilly is ostracised at first, but her extraordinary dressmaking skills seduce the locals, who all want a piece of her glamour, and she begins to wonder if she could make a home again in Dungatar after all. But small towns are strange places and her popularity doesn't last long. When the eccentric townsfolk turn on her for a second time, she sets out to teach them a lesson and exact the revenge she's always felt she deserved. Packed with sharp wit, high drama and luscious clothes, The Dressmaker is a vivid and irresistible novel.
The Dressmaker was a bestseller in Australia when it was first published fifteen years ago, and looks set to repeat this success worldwide with the release of the movie adaptation in 2016.