Western Australia during World War II, where an English anthropologist and his wife raise a lonely child, Perdita. Her upbringing is far from ordinary: in a shack in the wilderness, with a self-absorbed father burying himself in books and an unstable mother whose obsession with Shakespeare forms the backbone of the girl’s limited education. Emotionally adrift, Perdita becomes friends with a deaf-mute boy, Billy, and a forsaken Aboriginal girl, Mary. Perdita and Mary come to call one another sister and to share a profound bond. The three misfit children are content with each other and their life in this distant corner of the world, until a terrible event lays waste to their lives. Through this compelling story of Perdita’s childhood, Gail Jones explores the values of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice with a brilliance that has earned her numerous accolades.

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