'Gilly. You know we'll die here, don't you?' Pete's eyes are glazed and red-rimmed.
'Yes.'
'Aren't you afraid?' 'No, I'm not,' I tell him.
'I can't believe you,' he says. 'I don't believe you're not afraid.' He wants us to be joined now, at this moment. He doesn't want to die alone.
But I mean it. I'm not afraid.
Gilly lives in a drought-ridden small town in 1970s Australia. She's left school but hasn't found a job, it's always hot and life seems a little pointless.
Then Pete arrives. Golden-skinned with a kind smile and relaxed attitude, he boards with Gilly and her family and breaks the tension between her philandering father and anxious-to-please mother. Gilly can't help but fall in love with him and one sultry night, she gets what she wants.
A few weeks later, Pete disappears and Gilly finds out she's pregnant. She wants Pete so badly she'll do what it takes to find him and keep him, at any cost.
A dark love story, Desert Fish is a powerful and unflinching debut novel.
By:
Cherise Saywell Imprint: Vintage Country of Publication: Australia Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 153mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 368g ISBN:9781864711158 ISBN 10: 1864711159 Publication Date:01 March 2011 Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format:Paperback Publisher's Status: Active
Cherise Saywell's stories have been shortlisted for the Raymond Carver Prize and have appeared in The London Magazine, New Writing Scotland and Carve Magazine.