A young woman is found dead in the country land of 1920’s Australia. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? The police investigation into this mystery becomes a deeper dive into the lives of people a century ago, where the technology, human rights reforms, and economic safety nets of today did not exist. Sylvia Lerch’s historical fiction, Grasp The Nettle: Australian Country Life in the 1920s Era, is her debut novel at age 80, and it draws upon many aspects her family had experienced back then.The moving work reveals to the reader the challenges of living life in a time and place that was not kind to many, especially women and the gender diverse. How did people cope with the harsh obstacles of trying to live a meaningful, happy, healthy, love-filled life a century ago?


Grasp The Nettle reveals what those living in Australia country in 1920s had to confront. The world was so different then, from its lack of modern technology to few defenses against diseases that today are well under control. 
Women were not allowed to be financially independent, many were in loveless marriages, and a lack of reliable contraception kept them overwhelmed by more kids than they can handle.Lerch, an octogenarian who never used an ATM, doesn’t own a cell phone, lives in a home without Internet service, and doesn’t know from social media, lives a nearly tech-free lifestyle similar to that of those who lived in the 1920’s.
“My book also shows the powerful role of the church in the 1920’s,” says Lerch. “The church was the loom for the fabric of society, including education, mental health therapy, charity for the needy, births, deaths, and marriages. It was a meeting place not just for religious ceremonies, but for the conducting of the business of one’s life.”