From the award-winning author of Nona & Me comes a stunning new novel about two teenagers separated by cultural differences, their parents’ expectations and twenty kilometres of barbed-wire fence.

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 …

*Winner of the 2019 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Older Readers

Shortlisted for the 2018 Readings Young Adult Book Prize, 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, 2019 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Longlisted at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards.*

‘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