Author: Cassandra Golds

Cassandra Golds is an Australian writer whose fiction for children and younger readers often uses fable, tenderness, and the unexpected intelligence of small creatures. The Three Loves of Persimmon, published by Penguin in 2010, follows Persimmon, a florist working in an underground railway station. Her emotional world expands through encounters that include Epiphany, a mouse, and Rose, a talking cabbage, giving the novel a dreamlike structure without losing its attention to loneliness and affection. The book received the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award in 2011 and appeared on several other award shortlists. Golds had her first book accepted when she was nineteen and worked with illustrator Stephen Axelsen on serialized stories. Those experiences help explain her ease with visual episodes and quietly theatrical characters. In this novel, whimsical elements are not decorative interruptions; they provide different ways of naming love, grief, and companionship. Golds writes with restraint, allowing everyday places such as a flower stall or platform to open into a modern fairy tale.