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Caroline Overington
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I Came To Say Goodbye Mass Market Paperback – 1 September 2011

by Caroline Overington (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 234 ratings
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Caroline Overington's bestseller is a heart-breaking, utterly compelling novel of a family ripped apart.

Caroline Overington's bestseller is a heart-breaking, utterly compelling novel of a family ripped apart.

It was four o'clock in the morning. A young woman pushed through the hospital doors. Staff would later say they thought the woman was a new mother, returning to her child - and in a way, she was.

She walked into the nursery, where a baby girl lay sleeping. The infant didn't wake when the woman placed her gently in the shopping bag she had brought with her. There is CCTV footage of what happened next, and most Australians would have seen it, either on the internet or the news.

The woman walked out to the car park, towards an old Corolla. For a moment, she held the child gently against her breast and, with her eyes closed, she smelled her. She then clipped the infant into the car, got in and drove off.

That is where the footage ends. It isn't where the story ends, however. It's not even where the story starts.
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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    BANTAM AUSTRALIA ORIGINAL
  4. Publication date
    1 September 2011
  5. Dimensions
    12.7 x 2.3 x 19.4 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1864711574
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1864711578
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Product description

Book Description

"Caroline Overington's bestseller is a heart-breaking, utterly compelling novel of a family ripped apart."

About the Author

Caroline Overington is the author of two non-fiction books, Only in New York and Kickback, which won the Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature. She has twice won a Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism, and has also won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalistic Excellence.

She has written four novels- Ghost Child, I Came to Say Goodbye, Matilda is Missing and Sisters of Mercy (out November 2012). She lives in Bondi with her husband and their young twins.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ BANTAM AUSTRALIA ORIGINAL; 1st edition (1 September 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1864711574
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1864711578
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 2.3 x 19.4 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 234 ratings

About the author

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Caroline Overington

Caroline Overington

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Caroline Overington is the author of two non-fiction books, ONLY IN NEW YORK and KICKBACK, which won the Blake Dawson Prize for Business Literature. She has twice won a Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism, and has also won the Sir Keith Murdoch Award for Journalistic Excellence. She has written three novels: GHOST CHILD, I CAME TO SAY GOODBYE and MATILDA IS MISSING. She lives in Bondi with her husband and their young twins.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
234 global ratings

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Top reviews from Australia

  • Mbarag
    5.0 out of 5 stars This novel will question your beliefs. It will challenge your sense of self, tradtion and righteousness.
    Reviewed in Australia on 29 May 2016
    Disregard the previous negative reviews!

    This novel has one of the most challenging and complex deep structures relevant to contemporary Australian culture that I have read in a long time. In one novel, Overington has managed to critically explore and question Australia's tendency to value patriarchy, racism, medical opinion, education, white collar and working class families, over their parallel opposites of feminism, multiculturalism, Mother's intuition, and welfare families.
    But it doesn't stop here. Overington explores the real life consequences that can happen when higher authorities intervene in the lives of common (and highly complex) families. Parenting, cultural inclusion, traditional cultural rites and tolerance are pitted against social services, monoculture, and policing cultural traditions in Western societies.
    The legal system is the overriding force that brings all these things together, for better or worse.

    The narrative is the plea of a father/grandfather to reunite his family in the face of all the above. It is heartbreaking, powerful, challenging and so honest, and so relevant to Australian society today.

    Don't judge the characters, they come from such dark places of structural disadvantage; 'real' places that actually exist in real culture today.

    Instead, ask yourself what you believe, why you believe this, and... in that face of it all... What would you do?
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Susu
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very sad story. First half is boring, second half is compelling.
    Reviewed in Australia on 24 March 2022
    I wasn't sure how to rate this book. It's not a "nice" story. I didn't much like the first part, with Med describing the circumstances leading to his divorce and his total lack of empathy towards his wife's situation. Some of the middle was boring as well, too much description of nothing. The story sped up in the second half and I was hooked. Hard to believe the system can be like it was in this story, yet the "feel" of the book is very real. So many sad occurrences, yet the final hopeful chapter is a real tear jerker.

    I listened to the audio version and the narrators were FANTASTIC!
    Helpful
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  • Amazon Customer
    2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
    Reviewed in Australia on 18 April 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Didn't like reading about a dead baby.
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  • Ellbell46
    1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money
    Reviewed in Australia on 22 September 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Don't waste your money, predictable, boring, written from the viewpoint of a horrible sexist pig. Just wash your hair instead.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Shari Ring Wolf
    5.0 out of 5 stars Wow
    Reviewed in the United States on 7 June 2022
    Verified Purchase
    This book was an unexpected treasure! I got it on Audible, as one of the audiobooks included in my membership. I was having trouble understanding the Aussie accent, but liking the story, and the style the book is written in, I bought the Kindle version and went back and forth from reading to listening.

    Although I did have trouble at times with the accent, the narration of this book added much to the story. The male narrator brought the character Med to life. The book is told via letters written to a judge, mostly from the point of view of the grandfather/father (Med) of a family with 3 children and later their spouses and children. Somehow, the character development was beyond great. I felt like I knew each character through the letters they wrote. I had so much empathy for Meredith/Med and found him most relatable. His emotional honesty was beyond courageous. His love for his children and grandchildren jumped off the pages…yet he was obviously a quiet and unassuming person, the kind of person who blends into a crowd. In a way he was “Everyman”… someone we see in our daily lives, all our lives. It has me wondering how many people I pass each day who are like this man, unassuming yet desperately trying to do the right thing, wondering if they know what that is, exactly.

    The story is set in Australia and deals with the Family Court and Mental Health systems. If this book is accurate, it’s not so different from what many experience here in the USA, and I don’t say that on a positive note! I did find the story to get entirely too depressing at one point. I suddenly felt tired—wondering if this family was ever going to catch a break, and if anything good would ever happened to them! At about that part of the book there started to be good people stepping in to help, though I noted none of these good people worked in “the system.” In fact, everyone involved in Family Court or public mental health was a villain to the max. Absolutely nothing good happened within that system, they were clearly the bad guys.

    I did appreciate the moments of humor, dark though many of them were. I felt a twinge of guilt for laughing a couple of times. The author was great at describing the mannerisms of the baby daddy from the perspective of the baby’s grandfather. This was NOT a guy any father wants his daughter to be with! Then there were the descriptions of the welfare system, paperwork, case managers, and politically correct language that were funny because they were so accurate, from my own experiences.

    The story carries a beautiful message about the value of family, and how nothing replaces that special love. Parts of this book were not easy to read. Some very awful things happened to children in this tale. I was grateful it was able to end on such a positive note.

    This is either the 2nd or 3rd book I’ve read by this author. All her books have been special, unique. I will add her to my list of favorite authors!
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  • Rukshana Verzijl
    4.0 out of 5 stars insightful
    Reviewed in the United States on 9 January 2014
    Verified Purchase
    A distinctly Australian voice, this book traverses many cultures and socio economic groups. It is essentially about family and the consequences of support or the lack of it. We need to do more!
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  • copespeak
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sad and Dark but very current issues in Australia and elsewhere
    Reviewed in the United States on 13 August 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I really did enjoy this book, and have been unfortunately affected in the past by some of the issues dealt with. The reality of hopelessness of life experiences in a 'battler's' world is very well written, but so sad. Vulnerable people just doing the best they can with the cards dealt them, but it's never enough. I thought using Med and Kat's letters to the judge as a vehicle for the story to be slightly unbelievable, as a judge just would not have the time to trawl through such long statements. But an excellent read nevertheless. I'm now ready for her other book 'Ghost Child' now.
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  • Quinn
    5.0 out of 5 stars Shocking yet enthralling
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 December 2012
    Verified Purchase
    I couldn't put this book down. I am not sure what exactly I was expecting but I was shocked with nearly every turn of the page. The way it was written from the point of view of the grandfather and the sister was interesting, gave it such a real feel, as if you were right there watching everything unfold. I didn't expect the ending, but it didn't leave me disappointed. I have more Caroline Overington books on my wishlist now!
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  • Amanda
    4.0 out of 5 stars Family ties
    Reviewed in the United States on 27 April 2012
    Verified Purchase
    This book starts of a little slow but once I got involved in the main character ( dad ) it really comes together brilliantly. It's a story about how children effect our lives and how blood really is thicker than water. It depicts one family's struggle with the health /medical profession, the Law/judicial system and with society.
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