The Science of Appearances

Dominic & Mary are twins, but they are also opposites: Dominic, the first-born, is thoughtful & quiet, driven by the responsibility he feels over his father's death. His logical mind draws him towards the pursuit of science & knowledge. Mary, who loves to draw, is passionate & impetuous. The small country town in which they live, in the aftermath of World War II, is not enough to contain her ambitions for life & for love.

When Mary escapes to Melbourne in pursuit of sensuality & art, Dominic must shoulder the mantle of family responsibility. Mary begins a new life, exploring the bohemian haunts of a rapidly changing post-war city. Dominic studies hard & eventually finds himself drawn into the field of eugenics, a fraught pseudo-science based on ideology. Then he meets Hanna, the daughter of Jewish refugees, who begins to show him the limitations of his scientific view.

But Dominic & Mary are destined to come together, & the past cannot be left behind so easily. When Dominic comes looking for his sister, Mary must decide where her loyalties lie: to her family or to her art. Dominic, meanwhile, bears a secret of his own.

This is a powerful novel about the choices we make in pursuit of our ideas, & the inexorable pull of the past. Set in an era of social constraint but profound genetic discovery, The Science of Appearances examines how the complex interplay of heredity & environment makes, shapes, & sometimes breaks us.

°°° 

Jacinta Halloran is a Melbourne-based writer & GP. She has written on medical science for The Sunday Age, & her short stories have been published in New Australian Stories 2 & The Pen & the Stethoscope. A former board member for the Stella Prize for Women’s Writing, Jacinta is also involved as a speaker in the Stella Schools Program.