A moving story about refugees seeking asylum from the perspective of a 13-year-old Australian girl living on Christmas Island, Pip Smith offers readers, The Pull of the Moon.
Coralie is thirteen years old and lives on Christmas Island, where sea birds circle the sky and the seasons are marked by the migratory patterns of crabs. But life on the island isn’t always paradise.
During a fierce tropical storm, a fishing boat carrying eighty-nine asylum seekers crashes into the island’s cliffs. Coralie locks eyes with Ali, an eleven-year-old Iranian boy, as his mother pulls her life jacket over his head. But soon Ali disappears beneath the waves and when his body isn’t recovered, Coralie resolves to do everything she can to find him.
Pip Smith’s The Pull of the Moon explores what happens when the urge to help collides with the unfathomable uncertainty of loss and is a great starting point for discussions with teenagers about asylum seeking, detention centres, complex family relationships and grief.
Pip Smith was named an SMH Best Young Novelist of 2018 for her debut novel, Half Wild, which was shortlisted for the Voss Literary award, the Davitt Award, and longlisted for an ABIA Best Debut Fiction award. She teaches novel-writing for the Faber Writing Academy, where she also works as manager.
The Pull of the Moon is published by UWA Publishing and is available from all good book sellers including QBD Books.
Image: The Pull of the Moon – courtesy of UWA Publishing