Join us for the third instalment of our popular series, People of the Books, featuring award-winning novelist Diane Armstrong. A child Holocaust survivor who arrived in Australia in 1948, Diane has since captivated readers with her deeply personal and powerful storytelling. With seven books to her name, Diane’s works span memoirs and novels that reflect her profound insights into history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Her acclaimed family memoir Mosaic (1998) was shortlisted for both the Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the National Biography Award, while The Voyage of Their Life (2000) was recognised as a finalist for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in Nonfiction. Diane’s debut novel, Winter Journey (2004), was celebrated with a Commonwealth Writers' Prize nomination, and her second novel, Nocturne (2008), won the Women Writers' Society Fiction Award. In 2019, she returned to the literary scene with The Collaborator, an instant bestseller, marking her powerful resurgence after eight years.

Join us for a thoughtful and insightful deep dive into Diane's works, hosted by Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio.

From a bestselling Australian author comes a gripping novel of espionage, passion, and sacrifice set in the Middle East during World War I. Based on an astonishing true story, The Wild Date Palm asks: what are you willing to die for?

For readers of Geraldine Brooks, Heather Morris, and Alli Parker, this extraordinary novel transports you to 1915. During a train journey across Turkey's Anatolian Plain amidst the First World War, Shoshana Adelstein witnesses the slaughter of the Armenians and realises she has come face to face with her destiny. Convinced her Jewish community in a small outpost of the Ottoman Empire will soon face a similar fate, she becomes determined to save her people.

With Turkey and Britain locked in a global conflict, Shoshana orchestrates an audacious plan. Enlisting a group of co-conspirators—including her charismatic lover Eli and her impetuous brother Nathan—this young woman forms a clandestine spy ring. Overcoming nearly insurmountable obstacles, they risk betrayal, torture, and death to gather intelligence for the British and aid their war efforts.

This epic novel explores the fate of ordinary people whose missions collide with the secret agendas of powerful nations. It poses urgent questions: can individuals influence the fate of nations? And when life itself is at stake, how far will we go to reach the limits of our dreams?