Clare Atkins

Told from three perspectives, "Between Us" gives an insight into the plight of people seeking asylum in Australia. The story is not a pretty one and shows how poorly our country treats these people who fled their own country in the hope of a better place.

Anahita, her mother and her young brother fled Iran after her father was killed and are now in an Australian detention centre. During the week she can attend school where she meets Jono whose father, Kenny, has just started work at the show more centre.

Ana, Jono and Kenny provided interesting perspectives and Ana’s story especially moved me. Struggling to hold her family together as her mother sinks further into depression, she clings to her music and friendships, trying to be a ‘regular teenager’. While I liked Jono, I wasn’t impressed with how he lied to his father. However, I wanted a happily ever after ending but didn’t get it. Instead, it was realistic and believable. Although B"etween Us" was not an uplifting story, it was an important one. show less

This was an interesting exploration of implied and overt racism in a place where two cultures collide. My main beef with this novel is the invisibility of Nona. Although the cover shouts her name, she is an absent character and thus her perspective is missing. It's a bit ironic that, although this novel focuses on racism, the main characters are white and they are the ones with voices. By focussing on Rosie's conflicted emotions and guilt, it makes the narrative all about HER. I think this show more is a missed opportunity. show less

Very different story told from 3 perspectives - two are young adults and one is the father of one of the young adults.
Ana is a scarred teenage Iranian Muslim girl who lives in a detention center and has just been moved closer from a remote camp to a more civilized one so her mother can give birth to a new baby. One of the perks of being moved closer to town is that she is allowed to attend a normal high school.
Jono is the son of one of the guards in the detention center who co-incidentally show more attends the same school that Ana is about to attend. He is half Vietnamese and his mother has recently moved away to Sydney and he is also recovering from a break up.
Kenny is the Vietnamese born guard who inadvertently mentions his son to Ana on her first day and sets off a tangled chain of events.He has to look inward to see his situation versus hers. (He came legally as a sponsored migrant after his older sister fled to Australia during the Vietnam War.)

This is a very complex and engrossing book about an issue that all Australians should face - the fear of outsiders and terrorism, the need to embrace people who are desperate for a new life and the "hidden" facts about refugees in detention camps, violence, self-harm and deprivation.

With the father's added perspective, this book becomes more than just a boy meets girl from different world/trust issues/misunderstandings story. Could almost be studied as a class novel.

There is strong coarse language and mature themes in novel. show less

Thank you to Goodreads and Black Inc Books for providing this book as part of the First Reads program. This did not influence my review in any way.

In this deeply moving novel about family, community and friendship in Arnhem Land, comes the story of Rosie and Nona. Sisters, or yapas, they grew up side by side, white Australian and Aboriginal, until Nona and her family move away from their community following the death of her father. Now Nona is back and Rosie, who has neglected the Aboriginal show more way of life since Nona has been gone, must now balance her love for country and family with her new life in town with her friends and new boyfriend. A political decision polarizes the wider community and the time comes when Rosie has to choose between her oldest friend and her first love, between the two worlds that she inhabits.

Nona And Me is a beautifully affecting story that will make you question what you think you know about Aboriginal communities and the way they exist beside white settlement. This novel was built on its characters, particularly Rosie and her parents but also Nick and the Aboriginal community where Rosie lives, Yirrkala. Nona exists mainly in flashbacks and in stunted encounters in the present, showing the strength of their bond and their friendship over time and how it’s changed. While I found it sad that Rosie and Nona couldn’t just pick up where they left off (and we have Rosie to blame for that), I also think its realistic behaviour of a girl struggling between cultures and where she belongs. I wish she had handled it better, but the growth and development of Rosie as a person over the course of the novel is heartwarming.

Something I found most interesting in this book is its exploration of what influences and contributes to the formation of our opinions and ideas. Rosie wouldn’t have had the same connection with the Aboriginal community if she hadn’t been raised in one, and perhaps she wouldn’t have lost that connection and struggled with her identity if Nona had not left – maybe she would have struggled more. Nick’s opinions are based off a bad experience from when he lived in Sydney and from the influences of his parents. What made me sad was how he seemed to have the potential and the opportunity to learn about and embrace the Aboriginal community – I would have liked to see Rosie stand up and show him their way of life and introduce him to the world she grew up in. Rosie’s parents were also interesting characters, very entrenched in the Aboriginal communities, surprisingly intolerant of the residents of the mining town where Rosie goes to school (again, the same opportunity for teaching to the Caucasian community wasn’t embraced), but I guess this is realistic. People all over the world are entrenched in their own places with their own opinions and sometimes the only thing they have in common is they all think they’re right. The world would be a whole lot better if everyone was a bit more open-minded, but I guess that’s wishful thinking.

Nona and Me is a heartfelt coming-of-age story where you’ll cry and cringe and rejoice along with Rosie as she navigates the unstable waters of friendship and family while trying to understand the political turbulence and how it affects the people she loves. It was wonderful and I highly recommend it, particularly to other Australians. I look forward to more from Clare Atkins. show less