Oh dear. Another bad choice. I don't know why I had this on my wish list...I suppose it might have been its possible focus on parent-child relationships? It did win the 2013 Premier's Award for New Writing, but I suspect that, like many such government awards, had a strong element of political correctness. I'm not saying it doesn't have merit - who am I to judge such things? It's just that from my point of view the writing style and character appeal were not strong enough to make me want to continue with the story. The characters weren't well developed as far as I read. We saw very little of the real relationship between the mother and her second husband. The reader would have no idea what she saw in him or what made him the person he was. He was in fact very one-dimensional as far as I read. You could argue that was Sala's deliberate choice for this man who was suddenly thrust into a small boy's life. However I didn't find much more development of the mother who would obviously have been a central person with a profound influence. Anyway, I couldn't finish it and played the Nancy Pearl card at around page 100. I have strong doubts about leaving his second book, "The Restorer" on my wish-list, despite (or because of?) its Miles Franklin long listing. (Again, I suspect the focus on the issue family violence is what is being awarded rather than the writing itself. Maybe. We'll see ) ( )

Challenging content, not a light read but worth it. ( )