The True Story of an Abandoned Australian Child’s Struggle to Survive 
Childhood and Find her African-American Father.
An unacceptable liaison, a secret birth, a mother’s silence, and her black child’s journey to discover the truth…
It is 1948, Australia. Pretty, blonde Grace discovers she is pregnant to a black merchant marine who has sailed back to America. The White Australia Policy is in place and society’s judgment matters; so what will Grace do with this baby?
This is the extraordinary true life story of Sharyn Killens – The Inconvenient Child.
Rescued from squalid foster care by visiting champion African-American boxer Freddie Dawson, the baby Sharyn is taken to live in a party house in Sydney’s red light district of Kings Cross. Her absent, elegant mother then abandons her in a convent–orphanage, at age five.
By fifteen, discrimination within her family, resentment and clashes over her father’s undisclosed identity see the troubled teenager running away to the streets of Kings Cross where she’s arrested and sentenced to notorious juvenile detention centres in Parramatta and Hay.
Sharyn’s solace is her love of music but can she realize her dream to become a singer if, by twenty-four, she is caught up in the Kings Cross lifestyle?
Determined to find her African-American father, Sharyn sets out in search of her roots; a quest taking her across the world and eventually to America’s Deep South. But will she find the loving family and belonging she has yearned for all her life?
What readers are saying…
Firstly, what a stupendous life and story. Like everyone else, I cannot really express the impact it had on me. I read it cover to cover in one night. Helen Westermann – Adelaide South Australia
”You know, ever since I finished reading Sharyn and Lindsay’s book I just haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. What a truly resilient and strong person Sharyn is, and how lucky is she to have Lindsay as her friend. I read a review and thought I would get it and read it – I’m so glad I did. I was born the same year as Sharyn and this book had much meaning for me. I read the book in two days and was amazed at Sharyn’s strength and endurance. I felt all sorts of emotions – including pride, love, disgust, disappointment and I cried. I loved the little girl you were and appreciate and admire the woman you became. Congratulations on a most wonderful and heartfelt book. Thank you for sharing your life with me”. Sharon Loiterton – Canberra
“I have just finished your book, watched all of your interviews and laughed and cried with you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this story with us all and I hope you recover quickly from your heart transplant. You are my new found hero and I have found a place for you in my heart. What you have been through I can’t even imagine, I feel as though I know you so well and am blessed to have had you in my life through your book. Keep being the wonderful woman you are”. Amy Setter – Nambour
