Lured by the promise of the developing crayfish industry in the 1950s, Finnish migrants head to Little Rat, among the coral reefs of the Abrolhos Islands, off Western Australia. Just metres above sea level, they piece together ramshackle huts and live at the whim of the elements. A tragedy brings Onni Saari and wife Alva to join their countryfolk, and their daughter Hilda grows up moving between Little Rat and the mainland. In this strikingly original debut novel, Emily Brugman draws on her own family history to create a vividly realised portrait of both the New Australian experience, and what it is to be the child of migrants, born into a country that you belong to fiercely and viscerally, despite its not being your ancestral home.
Reviewed by Kelly Blaney-Murphy.
