Until The Red Leaves Fall

From the bestselling author of At the Foot of the Cherry Tree, Alli Parker returns with an engrossing and deeply moving historical novel of courage, identity, and conviction—Until the Red Leaves Fall.

Emmy Darling has secrets.
Some are harmless—her famous lemon meringue pie comes from a women’s magazine, she’s always dreamed of being a playwright, and the strongest moments in her husband Sebastian’s acclaimed plays are the scenes she quietly writes during edits.

But when charismatic theatre impresario and leading lady Virginia van Belle commissions Emmy to write the headline play for her 1957 season—based on Emmy’s wartime experiences—Emmy faces a writer’s most difficult question: how much truth can a story bear?

Because Emmy’s greatest secret is her true name: Emiko Tanaka. During World War II, she and her Japanese-Australian family were arrested, torn apart, and imprisoned in internment camps by the Australian government following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It’s this painful history Virginia wants brought to the stage—and to the public.

As rehearsals progress, Emmy watches her lived experience shift under Virginia’s vision, becoming increasingly sensationalised. Unable to turn to Sebastian—who has his own complicated past with Virginia—Emmy confides in Isadora Westlake, a dancer at a nearby coffee lounge who understands the cost of keeping secrets.

With opening night looming and rewrites threatening to erase the truth of her past, old wounds are torn open and everything Emmy holds dear is put at risk. As the curtain rises at the Belleview Theatre, Emmy must make an impossible choice: tell the story—or tell the truth.

From barbed-wire fences to velvet theatre seats, Until the Red Leaves Fall is a stunning novel about secrecy and betrayal in the aftermath of war, asking what happens when the truth gets in the way of a good story.

Praise for Until the Red Leaves Fall

‘Parker’s elegant command of novelistic craft makes for a delicate, progressive historical novel.’ — Sydney Morning Herald

‘A velvet-lined tale of secrets— alluring, heart-stopping and beautifully crafted.’ — Madeleine Cleary, The Butterfly Women

‘A sweeping, gorgeously told story of survival, identity and the power of truth.’ — Emma Pei Yin, When Sleeping Women Wake

‘Thoughtfully structured and elegantly told… a tender, resonant portrait of a woman learning to speak her truth.’ — Books+Publishing

‘As juicy as it is satisfying… Alli Parker makes page-turning easy.’ — Australian Women’s Weekly