AustLit

'Can bad children happen to good mothers? A totally absorbing novel, for readers of Liane Moriarty, Jodi Picoult, Lionel Shriver and Christos Tsiolkas.

'Blogger Lizzy's life is buzzing, happy, normal. Two gorgeous children, a handsome husband, destiny under control. For real-life Beth, things are unravelling. Recently returned to Australia from America, tensions are simmering with her husband, mother-in-law, and even her own mother. Her teenage daughters, once objects of her existence, have moved beyond her grasp and one of them has shown signs of, well, thoughtlessness ...

Beth hopes things will improve once they are settled in their new home and the girls start school. Reluctant to leave, her daughters seem to adapt to their new circumstances, and the younger, Charlie, shines in her unaccountable but customary way. Then a classmate of Charlie's is callously bullied and the finger of blame is pointed at Beth's clever, beautiful child. Shattered, shamed and frightened, two families must negotiate worlds of cruelty they are totally unprepared for.

This is a novel that grapples with modern-day spectres of selfies, selfishness and cyberbullying. It plays with our fears of parenting, social media and the refuge it provides, and it asks the question: just how well do you know your child?' (Publication summary)

'Subhi's imagination is as big as the ocean and wise as the sky, but his world is much smaller: he's spent his whole life in an immigration detention centre. The Bone Sparrow is a powerful, heartbreaking, sometimes funny and ultimately uplifting hymn to freedom and love.

'Sometimes, at night, the dirt outside turns into a beautiful ocean. As red as the sun and as deep as the sky. I lie in my bed, Queeny's feet pushing up against my cheek, and listen to the waves lapping at the tent.

'Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. But as he grows, his imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world. The Night Sea brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories.

'The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl who appears from the other side of the wires, and brings a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it, she relies on Subhi to unravel her own family's love songs and tragedies.

'Subhi and Jimmie might both find a way to freedom, as their tales unfold. But not until each of them has been braver than ever before.' (Publication summary)