The One Remaining
Hilary Mason is thirteen when her sister Elaine disappears. She fears someone close to the family is involved but represses her suspicions.
As an adult, Hilary becomes a successful novelist. In her fifties, she comes upon a stack of her old diaries, which document the trauma she’s endured. She decides she is ready to face the hidden backstory of her life.
She embarks on writing a memoir, Hilary’s Story, which will take her through her worst years and her best years, through courage and endurance, through friendship and great love.
The One Remaining is a captivating story of overcoming loss, finding the courage to trust those who believe in us, and the self-healing power of writing our stories.
‘The One Remaining is a wise, beautiful and moving novel about the whole of a woman’s life. I lived with the main character Hilary through her griefs, suffering and great joys. I cried as I read, then I wiped my eyes and smiled. McLean shows us how surviving loss and trauma is not linear or clear, but gives a depth and richness to life nonetheless.’ – Sophie Gee, The Secret Life of Books podcast
Paula McLean is the immediate past Deputy Chair and Patron of the Stella Prize, and now a NSW Ambassador. She is on the board of the Country Education Foundation, a member of the She Gives Advisory Group and a trustee of McLean Foundation, which supports conservation, education, domestic violence and literature. She began the Nature Writing Prize, administered by The Nature Conservancy Australia. A former fiction and educational publishing editor, Paula is also the author of Good Foods for Babies and Toddlers.
