From the ashes / Deborah Challinor.

Includes excerpt from "House of sorrows".

Includes bibliographical references.

Auckland,1956. Allie Manaia works at Smith and Caughey's department store. It's been two years since the Dunbar and Jones fire, where some of her friends perished, but she still has nightmares. Allie and her husband, Sonny, are desperate for a baby, after losing a child, and Allie's distress at not conceiving again is compounded when those around her seem to have no trouble falling pregnant - even when they shouldn't. Allie's neighbours have recently moved to suburban Auckland. Ana, now a housewife, misses her work on the farm, but she has her hands full, looking after her increasingly forgetful father-in-law. Kathleen Lawson - rich, lonely and bored - is one of Allies' customers at the make-up counter. Kathleen takes a shine to Allie, but when she discovers Allie's husband is Maori, Kathleen's attitude changes. Is she trying to make friends or poison the relationship between Sonny and Allie? Sonny's beautiful younger sister, Polly, is living a vibrant but wayward life as a waitress-model-goodtime girl while leaving her young daughter to be raised by her mother. Then one day Polly disappears...