The Framing: A Memoir by Fernanda Dahlstrom

Mum handed me some papers. 'Here's the brief of evidence if you want to read it.'

Brief of evidence?

This was a surprise.

I retreated to the study to peruse it. Two bank tellers gave statements describing the person who had completed a fraudulent transaction. Blonde, overweight, in her twenties. My mother was forty-five, slim, and was sometimes asked if she was Greek or Italian.

Another witness statement, equally inconclusive. A receipt for payment for three CDs and a bunch of other random documents.

Those cops had just collected bits of paper and called it evidence. Any jury would be able to see this did not prove anything.

When Fernanda Dahlstrom was eight, her mother went to jail and their idyllic life in rural Victoria was shattered. Now a young lawyer in Darwin, Fernanda tells her new partner about her chaotic past and her determination to show the world how her mother was framed. The Framing explores the complexities of trust and betrayal in family relationships, through a searing study of identity and justice.