Available Formats
The Piper's Son
By (Author) Melina Marchetta
Penguin Random House Australia
Viking Australia
1st March 2010
Australia
Young Adult
Fiction
823.3
Paperback
336
Width 152mm, Height 230mm, Spine 25mm
424g
Melina Marchetta's new novel takes up the story of the group of friends from Saving Francesca - only this time it's five years later and Thomas Mackee is the one who needs saving. Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world. But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death. And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.
"Tom's aunt Georgie spoke to me first, and Tom found me through her. At the time, I didn't actually think Tom was a big enough character to carry a story. If it had to be anyone from Saving Francesca, I thought, it would be Will Trombal or Tara. But the line in Francesca, 'I want to be the first male in the Mackee family to reach 40 and still have a liver' stuck with me, and in the end, Tom has been one of the biggest surprises. I'm glad I didn't kick him out of my head."
- Melina Marchetta -- Quote
Melina Marchetta is the author of Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca, On the Jellicoe Road, and Finnikin of the Rock.