Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode takes us back to the Australian Classics Book Club.

This month's classic is Thomas Keneally's A Dutiful Daughter.

Barbara Glover awaits her brother Damien’s tardy return to the family farm. Damien has been away at university while Barbara remains on the farm caring for her invalided parents. The malady that confines the Glover's is not your typical malaise and Barbara has had to perform a type of bureaucratic subterfuge to ensure that no one investigates the farm.

In many ways Barbara’s parents have blamed her and she has taken on this responsibility ever since the night they turned into half human, half bovine centaurs.