Sue Woolfe - The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves

Name: Sue Woolfe - The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves
Start: 2026-05-13T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-05-13T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6:30pm Wednesday 13 May

Sue Woolfe launched by Bob Carr

In The Girl Who Climbed on Rooves, Sue Woolfe tells the story of Frances, a composer looking back on a childhood shaped by beauty, fear and silence. Her mother was mesmerising yet unpredictable, capable of tenderness and sudden rage. No one spoke of why.

As Frances revisits her past, she begins to uncover the hidden life her mother never revealed: a wild girl who once climbed across rooftops, a young woman marked by secrecy, and a family shadowed by an unnamed catastrophe. Life became divided into “before” and “after,” though the truth remained buried.

Rich, searching and deeply affecting, this novel explores the long reach of what is left unsaid and the ways creativity can transform pain. At its heart, it is a story about mothers and daughters, and the fragile work of understanding and forgiveness.

“I didn’t want to stop reading this unique and wonderful book, and afterwards, my heart was ragged. Sue Woolfe says things that, to me, have not been said before.” - Helen Elliott

Sue Woolfe is an acclaimed Australian novelist, short-story writer and essayist whose work has been widely published and awarded. She is the author of five novels, including Painted Woman and Leaning Towards Infinity, winner of the Christina Stead Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (regional), and a long-running international bestseller. Her later novels include The Secret Cure and The Oldest Song in the World. Her short stories have also been shortlisted for prizes. Woolfe has adapted her work for stage, radio and opera, and writes widely on creativity, most recently exploring the connection between the brain and artistic practice.

The Hon Bob Carr is the longest continuously serving Premier in the history of New South Wales. Bob entered the Senate in 2012 and served as Australia’s Foreign Minister for 18 months. Since leaving politics Bob has led a distinguished career as a defacto diplomat, author and academic. Bob received the Fulbright Distinguished Fellow Award Scholarship. He has served as Honorary Scholar of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue. He is the author of: My Reading Life (2008), Thoughtlines (2002) and Diary of a Foreign Minister (2014),his political memoir Run for Your Life (2018) and Bring Back Yesterday (2026).