All That False Instruction by Kerryn Higgs

Passionate, funny and heartbreaking, this remarkable novel traces a young woman's turbulent coming of age.
Maureen Craig escapes from a difficult childhood on the fringe of a country town to the promise of the big city and a new world. But within the stone walls of university and the supposedly freewheeling youth-culture of the 1960s, she encounters a suffocating conformity. The life she longs for brings her into conflict with a society that values convention above all and forbids love between women. Against the odds, Maureen seeks to break free from social expectations and find a place in the world where she can be herself.