From the talented author of the celebrated novels In the Quiet and Ache comes a poignant and moving book that explores the stories we tell ourselves about our families, and what it means to belong. Seventeen-year-old Gwen lives in an isolated town in the wilderness of Tasmania. Gwen’s become very good at not thinking about the awful things that have happened to her family. Instead, she focuses on her best friend Loretta, and the beach, which Gwen runs along every day. She is also trying to accept and fit into her new stepfamily, but also avoid her stepbrother Tyrone, whose sole purpose in life seems to be to annoy Gwen. A lot. When two new kids arrive in this very quiet town things change. Could Handsome Ben really be interested in Gwen, while his sister turns out to be a classic mean girl whom Gwen and Loretta have to learn how to side step at school? As she deals with her deep sense of grief and loss, Gwen slowly comes to realise that people aren’t as they first appear and that like her, everyone has a story to tell.
