Hello fellow travelers, I am a writer, nature lover and traveler.
My first novel, Bella & Rami, is out now!
Set in India and Australia, it follows Bella, an Australian girl, and Rami, an Indian boy, from their first passionate encounters, through the twists and turns of their lives.
At its heart, Bella & Rami is a love story. It is also a mystery. What did Rami mean by his cryptic letter? Why did he abruptly disappear from Bella’s life? And will these star-crossed lovers overcome the things that keep them apart?
Bella & Rami explores themes of love, sexuality, childhood trauma, and resilience. A work of autofiction, it is also about the shifting sands of memory, the power of the written word, and the search for self and other that takes most of us a life time.
More about me…I spent my early years in Papua New Guinea (PNG) where my father was part of the colonial administration. My earliest memory is of a Papuan man shimmying up a tree and dropping coconuts to the ground. I attribute my love and fascination of other people and places to those early experiences, and to the pile of National Geographics that I kept next to my bed and read avidly from an early age.
My father was a restless man and the family moved often. In a time when communication by telephone was expensive and the internet hadn’t even been invented, writing letters became the means by which I remained connected to friends in distant places. I have correspondence dating back to age six!
In my late teens I went to India as a Rotary Exchange student and this proved to be a pivotal year in many ways. I kept a diary throughout the year, as well as a lively correspondence with family and friends in Australia.
After University, I commenced a career in international aid and development, working in Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. After the birth of my children, I put travel on hold for a while and enjoyed a second career in University Administration. I have a Bachelor of Arts (English and History) and a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences (Hons).
Today I spend my time writing, travelling, and exploring the natural world wherever I find myself.
My home is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people in Naarm, Melbourne, Australia.
Please join me on my writing journey. Sign up for email updates or follow me on Instagram.
Hello fellow travelers, I am a writer, nature lover and traveler.
My first novel, Bella & Rami, is out now!
Set in India and Australia, it follows Bella, an Australian girl, and Rami, an Indian boy, from their first passionate encounters, through the twists and turns of their lives.
At its heart, Bella & Rami is a love story. It is also a mystery. What did Rami mean by his cryptic letter? Why did he abruptly disappear from Bella’s life?...
One fair-skinned girl. One dark-skinned boy. One passion that lasts a lifetime.
Bella is an Australian schoolgirl living in 1980s India. Rami is an athlete just out of college, about to start life abroad. From the start, their connection is powerful and physical. As they navigate distance, family, trauma, and complicated lives, first love becomes...
Readers' Favorite
I’m so glad I read this book. It was honest and easy to read. Bella and Rami were complex, both as a couple and as individuals. Their emotions are messy at times, but that authenticity gave the story weight. ...I have never read a story set in India before, so I found myself interested in the author’s descriptions of the country, as well. Anyone looking for a coming-of-age love story with a more grown-up edge will want to read this.
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Jennifer Senick for Readers' Favorite
Unconventional, courageous, intimate, and—at times—defiant ... In a heart-wrenching work of autofiction, Isobel de Border explores the deepest recesses of these two lovers’ emotions over years of hope and decades of desperation.
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Leissa Shahrak, author of Half the World
What gives Bella & Rami its lasting force is de Border’s commitment to memory in all its untidy forms. The novel is confessional, reflective, and often intensely private, but its broader subject is the way a life changes when the past is revisited instead of simply remembered... Bella & Rami is a novel about first love becoming part of a lifetime, about the stories people construct from incomplete knowledge, and about the possibility that returning to the past with greater understanding can transform what that past means.
