AustLit

'Four-year-old Nathan Fisher disappears from the bank of a rocky creek. Did he drown or was he taken? The search for the missing boy grips the nation.

'A decade later, young teen Adam Vander has grown tall enough, strong enough, to escape his abusive father. Emerging from behind the locked door of their rambling suburban home, Adam steps into a world he knows little of.

'In the days that follow, with the charismatic and streetwise Billy as his guide, Adam begins to experience all that he's missed out on. And he begins to understand that he has survived something extraordinary.

'As the bond between the boys grows, questions begin to surface. Who is Adam really? Why was he kept so hidden? Was it just luck that Billy found him, or an unsettling kind of fate?

'Unearthing the shocking truth of Adam's identity will change the lives of many and put at risk a cast of flawed, desperate people. It's a treacherous climb from the darkness. For one boy to make it, the other might have to fall through the cracks.' (Publication abstract)