Long Road to Dry River

'D'you think you might've got the MS because you can’t forgive your dad?'

That wasn't Jennifer Severn's doctor asking—or her psychologist. It was her lawyer, but it was a good question.

When Jen, aged 22, settled into a cab at Sydney Airport one rainy night in 1988, she'd taken pains to create a safe, sensible life for herself after an abusive upbringing. But that was about to take a turn. The driver was a follower of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, and the conversation that night set her on a new, dual existence—Jen the medical sales rep and Marga Sahi the Rajneesh disciple. Was it the strain of maintaining this double life that brought on an episode of visual disturbance—double vision, no less—in 1994?

Family dysfunction, inappropriate relationships, life as an 'orange person', a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis … Jen bounced between Australia, India and Amsterdam before circumstances conspired to land her in Quaama, a small rural village in dairy country on the far south coast of New South Wales.

Will an unrestored 1840s shearer's cottage and a quirky rural community be her salvation?

Long Road to Dry River was shortlisted for the Finch Prize for Memoir in 2018.