My Spare Heart by Nukunu man Jared Thomas is one of Australia’s most authentic Young Adult novels written in recent years. Described as raw and honest, the story follows Phoebe as she attempts to navigate the complexities that life throws at her.
“Seventeen-year-old Phoebe’s life is turned upside down when she moves from the city to the country to live with her dad in this powerful and uplifting story about family breakdowns, facing truths and finding balance.
I mean, Mum didn’t drink that much. All of my friends’ parents loved their champagne or whatever. Everyone drank in The Village, too. I’d only been there for about a month and there’d already been five wine and food festivals. Mum’s drinking wasn’t a big deal. Right?
Phoebe’s non-Indigenous mother, a busy event manager, and her father, an Aboriginal man and uni lecturer, have split up and she’s moved to sleepy old Willunga with him and his new health-obsessed girlfriend. It’s only a few kilometres from Phoebe’s old friends and the city, but it feels like another world.
Her new school is full of hippies, but some of the kids are cool and the local basketball team is tight, and before long Phoebe’s fitting in. But as her mum becomes increasingly unreliable, Phoebe’s grades begin to suffer, her place on the basketball team is under threat and her worries spiral out of control.
Phoebe can’t tell her friends and is worried her dad will get angry, but pretending everything is fine is breaking her heart. How can she help her mum without tearing her family apart?”
– Allen & Unwin Publishers
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