When writer Catherine Deveny faced the end of a 17-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 Deveny had taken a plunge into the unknown or let go of conventional assumptions. In True North, she shares how she emerged from an oppressive Catholic upbringing in working-class Reservoir, found her tribe in Fitzroy’s share houses in the 80s, and learnt to live life on her own terms as she navigated the highs and lows of a creative life, family legacies and intimate relationships.