Between Us | Black Inc.
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Between Us

Between Us

Is it possible for two very different teenagers to fall in love despite high barbed-wire fences and a political wilderness between them?

Anahita is passionate, curious and determined. She is also an Iranian asylum seeker who is only allowed out of detention to attend school. On weekdays, during school hours, she can be a ‘regular Australian girl’.

Jono needs the distraction of an infatuation. In the past year his mum has walked out, he’s been dumped and his sister has moved away. Lost and depressed, Jono feels as if he’s been left behind with his Vietnamese single father, Kenny.

Kenny is struggling to work out the rules in his new job; he recently started work as a guard at the Wickham Point Detention Centre. He tells Anahita to look out for Jono at school, but quickly comes to regret this, spiraling into suspicion and mistrust. Who is this girl, really? What is her story? Is she a genuine refugee or a queue jumper? As Jono and Anahita grow closer, Kenny starts snooping behind the scenes …

About the author

Clare Atkins

Clare Atkins’ debut novel, Nona & Me, won the 2016 Book of the Year in the NT Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards, longlisted for the 2015 Inky Awards, and highly commended for the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. She has worked as a scriptwriter for many successful television series, including All Saints and Home and …

More about Clare Atkins



Specifications

Release date: 29 Jan 2018

RRP: $24.99

Paperback ISBN: 9781760640217

Format: Paperback

Size: 198 x 128mm

Extent: 304pp

Resources

Download teaching notes

Praise for Between Us

‘An urgent, compelling and transcendent love story for our times.’ —Alice Pung

‘I want everyone to read this book right now.’ —Fiona Wood

 

‘A beautiful, raw and timely book.’ —Melina Marchetta

‘This is a story about internal lives, feelings and relationships, and the things we can and can’t control. It is realistic and charming, tackling some big issues with compassion and insight.’ —Books+Publishing

Between Us is an engaging and powerful book that delivers a heartfelt and emotionally captivating story. Its depiction of detention centre life serves as a wake-up call for an issue that will remain relevant for quite some time.  — Joe Murray, The Readings Teen Advisory Board

‘I’ve just finished Clare Atkin’s Between Us and I have no words. I could not have been prepared for the emotions it dragged me through – emotions so strong because they are rooted in issues that affect thousands of innocent people.’ —Kirrily Ireland, The Readings Teen Advisory Board

 

Teachers Resources

Themes

Displacement, trauma, grief, loss, identity.

Reading age

Suitable for middle and senior secondary.

Downloads

  Teaching notes


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