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Her best and worst moments of life had their beginnings in death-shrouded places.
Socially awkward Daphne feels liberated when her hateful great Nana dies. Shockingly, she learns that the wicked witch who was not Polish, as originally believed, had been living incognito in Australia since 1948 and had travelled from India… with another woman’s baby.
Daphne must now unfurl her maternal family’s tricky past with help from the attractive half-Portuguese lawyer Benny, who has a turbulent past himself. They cross oceans for answers but find deceit. Historic obsessions, betrayals, and curses unfold, which lead to a present-day revenge killing and suicide pacts lined with more lies and half-truths.
Can Daphne trust him? Will parallel events seen between two branches of her family drive them apart or will they defy the stars? Daphne knows she cannot hold a decision off for much longer. She is fighting for her own heart.
Originating amidst the chaos of World War 2, this surreal tale spins a dramatic struggle of two families as they connect the dots. From Europe it travels the colonial route and culminates in Australia where two people defiantly end it – seventy years later.
It is evident that Maffy writes from her deep well of life experiences. There are stories of lives lived and the echoes of those lives in the present. - Russell Perry, Australian Author’s Marketplace.
Then Came Yesterday and Other Stories is a fictional blend of a historical past and modern present.
A cameleer from Afghanistan helps the Australian Outback thrive, but his descendants conceal their bloodline; a Serbian family escapes war to find peace in Australia; a Chinese couple stay true to their ancestral pearling and chronicling professions; Irish Catholics battle with institutional belief systems; an Australian bride plans her honeymoon to visit a cemetery in a distant land to prove an ancestor’s love affair; an Italian migrant recounts her role during Italy’s night of the bridges, and a suffragette motivation helps a prospective sati act twist a gory tale.
These stories contemplate some historical events that underpin the modern Australian psyche. They do not follow traditional short-story fundamentals; they touch on a subject and invite the reader to explore more.
Because we must be curious to know about people and societies unlike our own.