Coda (novel)


Coda is a 1994 novel by Australian author Thea Astley.

Plot summary

The novel is a satire on old age and concerns Kathleen Hackendorf who has reached the age when she must decide on where she is going to live until the end of her days. She begins to get lost when out of her house and discovers that the government requires her house as right-of-way for a road. She calls on her children for help, but they have their own selfish lives to lead: Shamrock is the wife of a crooked politician and overly self-obsessed, and Brian is miserably married. Neither of them want anything to do with her and pack her off to Passing Downs retirement village.
But Kathleen refuses to be "rendered invisible" as a result of her age and fights to maintain her dignity.

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