Dymocks Waurn Ponds Books in Bars featuring Anna Johnston

Join us for a fabulous evening talking books with Anna Johnston about her new book When Lemons Give You Life at the Waurn Ponds Hotel for our next in our Books in Bars Series.

A sharply funny, heart-stirring novel about rediscovering joy when life has lost its flavour, from the author of the bestselling book The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife.

Retired Michelin-star chef Griff Barlow has lost his appetite. He’s done with grief, guilt and the beige slop they dare call food at Sunny Glen Aged Care Facility, where he now resides.

Life’s given him all the lemons he can handle – so he breaks into the nursing home kitchen to bake himself one last tart. It’s supposed to be his final meal, but the act of cooking stirs a dormant joy. Soon, he’s regularly sneaking in after dark, serving up flavour and comfort to his fellow residents. Yet behind the apron is a lie so big it could destroy the one thing he has left to protect . . .

Meanwhile, Griff’s younger sister, Lisa, is navigating a new ADHD diagnosis and the spark of an unexpected romance. Despite their fractured sibling relationship, she dutifully visits Griff, though she knows hope of a reconciliation is gone, buried in the silence between them.

But the truth has a way of boiling over – and when secrets, soufflés and second chances collide, they may discover a recipe for forgiveness.