A lyrical, gentle and insightful novel about a single teenage father caring for his baby, while still searching for direction in his own life.
Matt had loved Emmy, with her freckled, luminous, magical body; he had loved the way she hadn't given a damn for anything, the way she had climbed onto the roof of the church tower and kissed him. The way she'd fallen into the river just to know what it felt like. He had loved the way she had said to her parents "We'll just love it, okay?"
He remembered how they had believed that loving Mahalia would be enough.
Seventeen-year-old Matt is in the unusual position of being a single teenage father. He is looking after his baby, Mahalia - Emmy, his girlfriend, couldn't cope and has gone away for a while, perhaps forever. Set in a hippyish town in northern New South Wales, the novel explores with singular honesty the tensions in Matt's existence, between the purposeful growth and demands of the baby and his own sense of drift. He finds a share house to live in and the blossoming of new friendships acts as a counterpoint to the eventual dissolution of his relationship with Emmy.
