A “timely and powerful” novel that provides “a haunting and compassionate consideration of the question of who can and cannot come into a country” (Publishers Weekly). Set in Sydney’s working-class western suburbs, No More Boats tells of a family whose unraveling lives collide with a refugee crisis known as the Tampa Affair, when over four hundred refugees were left stranded fifteen miles off the Australian coast. The story revolves around Antonio, an Italian immigrant, his wife, Rose, with a rich back story of her own, and their two children, Nico and Clare—both, in their owns ways, drifting. After a job-related accident forces him into early retirement and the familiar scaffolding of work, family, the immigrant’s dream of betterment, is removed from his life, Antonio’s mind begins to fragment. Manipulated by the media and made vulnerable by his feeling of irrelevance, Antonio commits an act that makes him a lightning rod for the factions that are bitterly at odds over the Tampa Affair . . . A finalist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2018, No More Boats is not only a riveting story of a modern family; it also directly addresses issues that many nations are grappling with—immigration, xenophobia, protectionism, racism, media manipulation, and the precariousness of the working poor—and is “full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world” (Kirkus Reviews).
Michael's older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15. This novel tells of Michael's coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael's community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman.
It is 2001, 438 refugees sit in a boat called Tampa off the shoreline of Australia, while the TV and radio scream out that the country is being flooded, inundated, overrun by migrants. Antonio Martone, once a migrant himself, has been forced to retire, his wife has moved in with the woman next door, his daughter runs off with strange men, his deadbeat son is hiding in the garden smoking marijuana. Amid his growing paranoia, the ghost of his dead friend shows up and commands him to paint 'No More Boats' in giant letters across his front yard. The Prime Minister of Australia keeps telling Antonio that 'we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come'. Antonio's not sure he wants to think about all the things that led him to get in a boat and come to Australia in the first place. A man and a nation unravel together.
A complicated friendship. A roadtrip in a stolen car. The stories that define us. And two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer. Rosa was never really trying to hurt anyone, no matter what they said in court. But she's ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared. A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer. WINNER OF THE VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR WRITING FOR YOUNG ADULTS 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE CBCA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR OLDER READERS 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NSW PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARDS THE ETHEL TURNER PRIZE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE'S LITERATURE 2022 SHORTLISTED FOR THE QUEENSLAND LITERARY AWARDS 2022 YOUNG ADULT BOOK AWARD
Michael s older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15, but as its title suggests The Incredible Here and Now is a tale of wonder, not of tragedy. Presented as a series of vignettes, in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros Young Adult classic The House on Mango Street, it tells of Michael s coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance; and of the place he lives in Western Sydney where those who don t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their car doors, and those who do, flourish in its mix of cultures. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael s community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman.
Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most. What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never knew they could be, emotionally, intellectually, or politically? What book made them readers, or made them writers, or made them laugh, think, or cry? Join thirty-one top children’s and young adult authors as they explore the books, stories, and experiences that changed them as readers — for good. Some of the contributors include: Ambelin Kwaymullina Mal Peet Shaun Tan Markus Zusak Randa Abdel-Fattah Alison Croggon Ursula Dubosarsky Simon French Jaclyn Moriarty
A traveller becomes a Monroe impersonator in the casinos of Macau. An obsessive son of Australians living in Jakarta confronts his strange rituals. A young woman is trapped in the boredom of her fathers' ministry in exotic Borneo. A daughter defies her mother and travels to Bali. Castagna's twenty stories range across countries: including Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and China, deftly exploring the relationships of parents and children, lovers and enemies, the transient and the resident. In the spirit of Rattawatt Lapacharoensap's Sightseeing, Castagna's fiction powerfully captures the landscapes and cultures of Asia and the intriguing interactions of Westerners with it.
A “timely and powerful” novel that provides “a haunting and compassionate consideration of the question of who can and cannot come into a country” (Publishers Weekly). Set in Sydney’s working-class western suburbs, No More Boats tells of a family whose unraveling lives collide with a refugee crisis known as the Tampa Affair, when over four hundred refugees were left stranded fifteen miles off the Australian coast. The story revolves around Antonio, an Italian immigrant, his wife, Rose, with a rich back story of her own, and their two children, Nico and Clare—both, in their owns ways, drifting. After a job-related accident forces him into early retirement and the familiar scaffolding of work, family, the immigrant’s dream of betterment, is removed from his life, Antonio’s mind begins to fragment. Manipulated by the media and made vulnerable by his feeling of irrelevance, Antonio commits an act that makes him a lightning rod for the factions that are bitterly at odds over the Tampa Affair . . . A finalist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2018, No More Boats is not only a riveting story of a modern family; it also directly addresses issues that many nations are grappling with—immigration, xenophobia, protectionism, racism, media manipulation, and the precariousness of the working poor—and is “full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world” (Kirkus Reviews).
Michael’s older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15, but as its title suggestsThe Incredible Here and Now is a tale of wonder, not of tragedy. Presented as a series of vignettes, in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros’ Young Adult classic The House on Mango Street, it tells of Michael’s coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance; and of the place he lives in Western Sydney where ‘those who don’t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their car doors’, and those who do, flourish in its mix of cultures. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael’s community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman.
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