One Foot Wrong

(Paperback)

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'... harrowing, beautifully written, insightful and absorbing ... unique and absolutely hypnotic.' Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated Incident

Meet Hester. A child of dark beginnings and few words. Living a painfully sheltered existence forced upon her by reclusive parents, Hester befriends the inanimate objects in her sheltered life: Cat, Broom, Handle and Axe, who speak to her in return.

When Hester's parents are forced to send her to school, the little girl is overjoyed at meeting children her own age and making her first real friend - Mary. But her pleasure is cruelly taken away from her and she returns to the overwhelming oppressiveness of home.

But no one can stop Hester from growing up, and it is when innocence becomes experience that she finds the strength to take action. All she has endured in her short life culminates in a climactic moment that will change her life forever.

The story told in One Foot Wrong is often dark, but the sheer blazing brilliance of Sofie Laguna's language, imagery and imagination illuminates every page and makes this novel an exhilarating, enlightening and ultimately joyous act of faith. 'The stars shine darkest out of the deepest dark.'

'... surprisingly uplifting, cathartic and affecting.'
Louise Swinn, The Age

'An authentic voice, an evocation of childhood and memory that, for all its terrors, evokes the sublime, tragic moment when innocence submits to experience ... This is the opposite of what the tabloids do: this is humane, passionate, true.'
Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap and Barracuda

Author Bio

Sofie Laguna won the 2018 Indie Book Award for Fiction for The Choke and her second novel for adults, The Eye of the Sheep - shortlisted for the Stella Prize - won the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her first novel for adults, One Foot Wrong, published throughout Europe, the US and the UK, was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Sofie's many books for young people have been published in the US, the UK and in translation throughout Europe and Asia. She has been shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award, and her books have been named Honour Books and Notable Books by the Children's Book Council of Australia. Sofie lives in Melbourne with her husband, illustrator Marc McBride, and their two sons.