Catherine Deveny 
True North 
A Memoir

An uplifting, heartfelt memoir about surviving life’s upheavals – and how to live authentically



Breaking up isn’t a conscious decision, it’s more of a revelation … In the first few moments after waking each day I needed to remind myself who I was and what had happened. It was like pulling a compass out of a drawer and watching it adjust, the needle swinging around to find true north and quivering before staying there.


When writer Catherine Deveny faced the end of a seventeen-year relationship with the father of her children, she had no idea what lay on the other side of the months of tumult: she just knew she had to create space for a new life.


But this wasn’t the first time she’d taken a plunge into the unknown or let go of conventional assumptions. In this heartfelt and moving memoir, Deveny shares how she learnt to live life on her own terms. From her oppressive Catholic upbringing in Melbourne’s working-class inner-north, through growing independence in her teenage years and university sharehouses to life in Melbourne’s thriving cultural scene, Deveny’s life is at once highly relatable and utterly unique.



True North is a cathartic and uplifting read that will resonate with anyone who has gone through – or is currently living through – a major life change.

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Catherine Deveny is a writer, commentator and comedian. She is the author of nine books, including Mental, Use Your Words, The Happiness Show, Free to a Good Home, Say When and It’s Not My Fault They Print Them.