Beautifully capturing the emotional complexity of impending motherhood, Little Plum is a rich and vital story from a rising star in Australian fiction

On the cusp of thirty, Coral learns that a thing is growing inside her body. It is not necessarily a complete disaster, she tells herself. I'm okay, she tells herself.

Soon the thing inside her is the size of a plum. 'Little Plum,' she says, 'Little Plum, I love you.'

And she wants to love it, the little plum. It's just that she can't yet think of it as what it is becoming- a baby, and not just a fruity morsel.

Coral is tapping and shrugging more than usual. She is trying to stop the creature in her head from taking hold.

Coral might not be okay-or she might be seeing more clearly than anyone.

Bold, dark and sensuous, Little Plum is the stunning follow-up to the award-winning debut Cherry Beach. With skill and sensitivity, Laura McPhee-Browne takes us inside the mind of an expectant mother.