Life in Seven Mistakes follows the fortunes of the Barton family. Beginning with a fractious and disagreeable family Christmas in an apartment on the Gold Coast, we then step half a century into the past to follow the budding romance and early career of the attractive, idealistic young couple who are destined to become the cantankerous, domineering grandparents who own the Gold Coast apartment. A rich sense of irony imbues the beautifully written scenes set against the backdrop of the Snowy River Scheme, that epic of engineering and cultural change in the 1950s, while the bickering and personal dramas of the present-day family maintain the tension all the way to the unexpected and deeply moving climax. This large-scale, highly emotional, yet sometimes comic novel is Susan Johnson's finest and most commercial achievement yet.