The Anatomy of Wings

by KarenFoxlee (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2009

  $6.17

  A powerful and touching coming-of-age story set in the Australian outback, as ten-year-old Jennifer Day tries to come to terms with her sister's suicide, learning something about herself - and about life - along the way.Jennifer Day is ten years old, and she lives with her family in a small dusty mining town in Queensland. She likes to make lists of natural catastrophes; her best friend Angela has just acquired her first training bra; and her elder sister, Beth, has committed suicide. Her mother spends day after day on the sofa barely speaking; her father has moved out; and her beloved grandmother has been banned from the house.As Jennifer tries to piece together the last year of Beth's life, she reflects on her sister's fragility, her slide into bad company, her under-age drinking (and under-age sex), Jennifer also begins to understand something of the secret world of teenagers. As wickedly funny as it is heartbreaking, this is an unforgettable account of growing up and coming to terms with grief.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.33

  In a dusty Queensland town, something terrible has happened.Amongst broken bottles and cigarette butts at the foot of a water tower, a girl with blonde hair lies as if sleeping. Jennifer Day has lost her sister and her singing voice, and doesn't know how to find either of them. Her father and mother move under a spell, and a dark silence lives in the space that fiery, rebellious Beth has left behind her. To recover her voice, Jennifer must retrace her sister's last steps, weeding out childish mementoes from disturbingly adult memories. As she learns about the last year of her sister's short but eventful life, she slowly begins to cross the threshold from childhood into adolescence - taking flight even as her family slowly falls apart.