Margins
My Spare Heart book cover
My Spare Heart
2022
First Published
3.90
Average Rating
384
Number of Pages

Seventeen-year-old Phoebe's life is turned upside down when she moves from the city to the country to live with her dad in this powerful and uplifting story about family breakdowns, facing truths and finding balance. I mean, Mum didn't drink that much. All of my friends' parents loved their champagne or whatever. Everyone drank in The Village, too. I'd only been there for about a month and there'd already been five wine and food festivals. Mum's drinking wasn't a big deal. Right? Phoebe's non-Indigenous mother, a busy event manager, and her father, an Aboriginal man and uni lecturer, have split up and she's moved to sleepy old Willunga with him and his new health-obsessed girlfriend. It's only a few kilometres from Phoebe's old friends and the city, but it feels like another world. Her new school is full of hippies, but some of the kids are cool and the local basketball team is tight, and before long Phoebe's fitting in. But as her mum becomes increasingly unreliable, Phoebe's grades begin to suffer, her place on the basketball team is under threat and her worries spiral out of control. Phoebe can't tell her friends and is worried her dad will get angry, but pretending everything is fine is breaking her heart. How can she help her mum without tearing her family apart?

Avg Rating
3.90
Number of Ratings
117
5 STARS
29%
4 STARS
39%
3 STARS
25%
2 STARS
6%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads

Author

Jared Thomas
Author · 4 books
Jared Thomas was born in Port Augusta in 1976. Both his parents have Aboriginal heritage, and he identifies as Nukunu due to being raised on Nukunu land and with Nukunu culture. He has published many books and his writing explores the power of belonging and culture. In 2015 his novel Calypso Summer joined the 2015 International Youth Library White Raven list of books that deserve worldwide attention because of their universal themes and exceptional artistic and literary style. His recent releases include Songs That Sound Like Blood and the Game Day series written with NBA player Patty Mills.
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