From multi-award-winning author Judith Clarke, this is a magnificent and deeply moving story about two girls, a life-long friendship, and the heart's search for the real true thing.'A gentle, deeply passionate novel that makes you feel for a moment when you have finished it that you have actually lived someone else's life.' - Ursula DubosarskyThe path of Ruth's life was shaped in one fateful moment when, as a baby, she was tossed clear from a car wreck. Her grandmother raised her, with a fierce hope that she would one day go to university and see every marvellous place in the world.When Ruth and her best friend Fee finish school, Fee chooses motherhood and marriage. Ruth knows that she must leave town, but that means leaving Tam Finn, the elusive yet entrancing boy so unlike any other she has ever met.An extraordinary story of friendship, longing and the saving grace of love.'This story, which begins in rural Australia in 1959 but reaches into the past and the...

When Neema's great-grandmother Kalpana leaves her village in India to visit her family in Australia, Neema is not sure how to be friends with her, but a boy on a skateboard brings them together, and they both find something they've long forgotten. Judith Clarke writes with humour and insight, and introduces a teacher known as the Bride of Dracula!; Neema's great grandmother, Kalpana, is coming to visit. She's been dreaming of flying again, and now she's ready to leave her village in India. Neema and her friend, Kate, have just started at Wentworth High. For English they have pale Ms Dallimore; everyone calls her the Bride of Dracula. Ms Dallimore wants her students to think, and imagine - and learn to fly! At first, Neema is awkward with Kalpana. Kalpana doesn't speak English and Neema doesn't speak Hindi. But when they meet the flying boy, they both remember something they had lost long ago.Judith Clarke writes with tenderness and humour in this story of coming together and finding the essence of who you are. Clarke's quiet wisdom and keen understanding will touch hearts and stimulate imagination'Wolf on the Fold - Publishers Weekly US

A gorgeous, funny, happy-ending story in which sensible sixteen-year-old Lily finds a way to bring her 'freakish' family together for one whole and perfect day. 'A warm, engaging read about family and love and friendship and the ties that bind.' - Maureen McCarthy Freakish, thought Lily; that was the word for her family. Not freaks exactly, but all peculiar in their own way. And Lily had always been the sensible one. Sometimes she wished she could be like the other girls in her year Maybe she should fall in love. What could be less sensible than that? Fall in love? Ridiculous! But when she saw Daniel Steadman and their eyes caught, only for a second, the tiny encounter gave Lily a strange light woozy feeling inside her head. It made her brain feel funny, like a tablet fizzing, dissolving away inside a water glass 'It's a rare enough thing to find even one truly distinct and fascinating character in a novel, but Judith Clarke has with secret ease created a dozen such in this book, from teenagers to grandparents, magically linked by a dozen different dilemmas, all leading beautifully from one to another and fitting together so endearingly.' - Ursula Dubosarsky

Frankie believed in Heaven quite literally, as if it was another lovely world out past the stars. And when he spoke the word "love", it seemed to spring free and fly into the air like a beautiful balloon you wanted to run after. But I couldn't tell my parents about Frankie, not properly. I told them I'd made friends with the boy in the room next to mine, and how he'd come from this little town out west. I couldn't tell them how he was becoming the best thing in my world. I couldn't tell anyone, I hardly admitted it to myself.'In the 1950s, 'entering' the seminary was for ever, and young boys were gathered into the priesthood before they were old enough to know what they would lose. Tom went to St Finbar's because he was looking for something more than the ordinary happiness of his home and school.But then he discovered that being able to love another person was the most important thing of all. For Tom, loving Frankie made him part of the world. Even when Frankie was gone...