“Maps lie.
Or at least, they don’t always tell the truth.
They are like us humans that way.”
This book is set in 1999, on the Morning Peninsula in Victoria. Fred lives with her step-father and her grandfather,
but all that is changing and she doesn’t like it. Her step-father, Luca, has a new partner, Anika,
and she is moving in with them – along with her son, Sam. Her grandfather is in a nursing home after a fall.
And to make things worse, Luca and Anika are having a baby.
Fred is feeling isolated from her small family and out of control. But maps change and journeys take unexpected turns.
“A map doesn’t even really tell you where to begin or end – those ones with Start Here and X Marks the Spot are just that way in movies, or kids’ menu colouring-in placemats. Really it’s up to us – the people who live within the borders – to keep the truth and know the way.”
As Fred’s small world is changing, so is the wider world. The war in Kosovo has resulted in a group of refugees being housed in the remote Quarantine Station on Point Nepean. What will this influx of strangers do to their small town?
Uncertainty and unrest is just as common in the community as welcome and kindness.
As Fred, Sam and their friends find out more about the refugees get to know some of them,
and the conditions at the Quarantine Station, Fred’s maps change, her world view grows and the borders of her life expand.
I loved this book so much. Fred’s personal journey as she find her place in her new-look family and as part of a wider world is full of love and humour. A must read.
Read more about the author, Danielle Binks.