The narrator of Shirley (2023) by Australian writer Ronnie Scott was in informal foster care as a teenager.

The unnamed narrator is the daughter of a celebrity in the TV food industry. Celebrity mum fled Australia after she was caught out in an unflattering photograph and teenage daughter was left in the care of mum’s employees collectively named the Gerards.

20 years on and the daughter is buying her own apartment in an inner city Melbourne suburb, mum is selling the family home, and the young woman is wondering about the meaning of life.