The Lodgers - Paperback

When Mabel, a former Vaudeville performer, lands a job managing a boarding house on the ocean, she appears to attract a disparate cast of lodgers, all with unfortunate and dark lives.The lodgers include: Two queens, old thespian friends of Mabel's who live in the basement with a peppercorn rent.Therese, a pregnant Irish girl banished to England by her mother who assumes she is in an unmarried mothers' home in the care of the nuns.Irene, a recovering alcoholic who has a sister Judy who, due to a trauma experienced during the war is unable to speak.Arthur, an aged army major, had a son Ned who was shot for desertion.Harry, alias Percy, a con man and felon who befriends the landlady, Mabel.When Therese moves to the Outback to get married, Judy follows and one day Judy spots a Kookaburra in a nearby tree. When the bird laughs, an unexpected, wondrous miracle happens