Big River, Little Fish

Description

Big River, Little Fish is the highly anticipated second novel from Belinda Jeffrey.

Set in South Australia during the 1956 Murray River flood, it tells the story of Tom Downs, a boy trapped between his way of reading the world and the world’s way of seeing him.

He lives in the town but likes it best down by Old Mother Murray, talking to his best friend, Hannah, and helping the outcasts who live in the shacks on her banks.

But there’s a big river coming and Tom feels like everything he loves and understands might be swept away and lost. From the moment Tom Downs was born backwards – the moment of his mother’s death – time has held him the wrong way round, like he’s caught inside a fractured story.

But the thing about the Murray River rising, the thing about Tom’s town flooding, and the thing that takes him by surprise is not what Old Mother Murray takes away, but who she brings back.

Big River, Little Fish is a compelling tale of a boy growing up into manhood set against the dramatic and beautiful scenery of the Murray River in South Australia.