Alumnae Authors 

Kath O'Connor (1991)

Published posthumously in time for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Inheritance is a piercing debut novel from medical doctor and author Kath O’Connor. It was at the final draft stage when she died from ovarian cancer, at only 45 years of age, and has been completed by her family and partner Rachael Findlay with guidance from Kath’s writing mentor.

The book charts, in alternating chapters, the lives of two women who share a mutation of the BrCa1 “caretaker” gene, which assists in DNA repair and drastically increases the risk of several cancers. Rose is an oncologist who, in 2016, learns that she has the mutant gene during IVF treatment, while trying for a child with her partner Salima. The discovery draws her to find out more about the grandmother she never knew, Nellie, whose early death was caused by the same fatal gene Rose has inherited.

Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp

SMH 3 February 2023

Inheritance

Kath O’Connor, Affirm Press, $32.99