Islands

Helen and John are too busy tearing their marriage apart to notice how badly their daughters are faring. Junie becomes defensive and hard, while Anna turns rebellious. After the separation, June chooses her father's house and Anna her mother's, and neither parent really looks after them. One night Anna, aged fifteen, stays out. Because she has disappeared before and always turned up again, Helen lets three days pass before going to the police, but Anna never returns. Shifting between Phillip Island and suburban Melbourne over decades, the story is assembled from short scenes, one-sided interviews and accounts of the pictures June paints later in life, and shows each family member stranded in grief.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

320 pages in the original

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia

First published

2019

Author's age

43 when first published

ISBN

9781760528744 (Allen & Unwin, Australia)

9781760878047 (Allen & Unwin, Australia)