The Aunt's Story

The Aunt's Story is a novel by the Australian writer Patrick White, published in 1948 and the third of his novels to appear. Its central character is Theodora Goodman, a lonely middle-aged woman.

What sends her travelling is the death of her mother. She goes first to France and then to America, and the book follows her through both journeys without ever settling what she is looking for.

What happens to her in America is either a gradual mental breakdown or an epiphanic revelation, and the novel is written so that the reader cannot decide between the two. Theodora is described by her family as both a kindness and a darkness, which is how she is introduced.

The book was not widely read when it first appeared, and the author continued to say that it was the novel of his he had the most affection for. The novel is divided by where Theodora is, and each of the places she goes to changes what she is able to see about herself.