LIVING in a small community can bring a sense of belonging, or be suffocating. When Cray and Rosie flee Fremantle WA and their high-paying jobs for a much-needed breather from big city life, they’re uncertain which will be the outcome.
Deb Fitzpatrick, author of 90 packets of Instant Noodles (2010) and The Amazing Spencer Gray (2013) sets the stage for her first adult novel, The Break, in a tiny surfing community near Margaret River.
Here everyone knows everyone’s business. And more, for it’s not all sparkling seas and friendly locals: the town is besieged by money-grubbing developers who threaten the very lifestyle which makes Grey’s Bay so attractive in the first place.
I love this book because The Break ponders themes familiar to every local living in a small place: from the solitude of wandering a beach bay where no-one else is in sight, to the pleasure of raising a family where you know your neighbours personally.
Ms Fitzpatrick also shows us the darker side of life in a small town as we follow the despair of Mike, who leaves his frustrated family behind to spare them the shame of his notoriety. Noosa readers will hear echoes of our struggle for regional independence in the Residents Against Inappropriate Development community meetings so like our own.
Think you’ve read it all before? Not so. There’s a shock that hits like a bolt from the blue.
The Break is available at Noosa Library.
