The Convent by Maureen McCarthy

'I woke up with a feeling about today,' Stella says dreamily. 'Something truly amazing is going to happen.'
   'To us or to the world?' I say.
   'To you.'
   'To me? I laugh. 'Nothing ever happens to me, Stella.'
   'But today it will.'
   'Will it be good?'
   She looks thoughtful and then frowns. 'I ... I don't know.'

Peach is nineteen and pretty happy with the way things are. She has her university studies, two best friends, her younger sister Stella to look after, and a broken heart to mend. But when she takes a summer job at a cafe in the old Abbotsford Convent, her idea of who she is takes a sharp turn ... into the past.

 The nuns, orphans and fallen women are long gone when Peach discovers her own deep connection to the place. But as the convent's stories intertwine with her own, Peach is jolted out of her comfort zone. How much does she really want to know? And who will be around when she finds out who she really is?

Intensely real, warm and provocative, Maureen McCarthy's The Convent reveals in vivd detail how the choices we make, and the choices made for us, ripple through time.

A novel to fall in love with.