Booktopia Comments
This book is featured in our CBCA Awards page, featuring all the winners, honourees and shortlisted books of 2021
Product Description
Dylan and her adored French mother dream of one day sailing across the ocean to France. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won't make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs.
But when she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey- a road trip across outback Australia in the care of her mother's grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they travel through remote towns further and further from the water that Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond. One that will be broken when he leaves her with the family she has never known.
Metal Fish, Falling Snow is a warm, funny and highly original portrait of a young girl's search for identity and her struggle to deal with grief. Through families lost and found, this own-voices story celebrates the resilience of the human heart and our need to know who we truly are.
'Breathtaking...one of the most moving books I've read in ages.'
Vikki Wakefield
About the Author
Born in Guyana, Cath Moore is of Irish/Afro-Caribbean heritage. Though raised in Australia she has also lived in Scotland and Belgium. Cath is also an award-winning screenwriter, teacher and filmmaker. She holds an MA in screenwriting and a PhD in Danish screenwriting practices. Metal Fish, Falling Snow is Cath's first novel. She lives in Melbourne.
Industry Reviews
'A breathtaking debut with such an assured, original voice-one page and I was all in. I wanted to remember every line but it felt like trying to catch handfuls of stars-in the end every piece fell into place so beautifully and I sat there in gobsmacked silence...you know the feeling that hits after you've read an extraordinary book? Metal Fish, Falling Snow is one of the most moving books I've read in ages and I'll be thinking about it for a long time.' * Vikki Wakefield *
'Astonishingly original, heartfelt and funny.' * Books+Publishing *
'This wonderful Australian debut paints a whirling, raging, intense portrait of a teen who experiences the world in ways that she struggles to communicate to others. The reader is taken deep into Dylan's mind and heart and senses, in ways that are sometimes deeply humorous, and at other times deeply painful. Layers of ideas about race, identity, grief and family run through this book, but the focus never wavers from Dylan's funny and profound voice. This is a really moving, original and thought-provoking novel.' * Leanne Hall *
'This wonderful Australian debut paints a whirling, raging, intense portrait of a teen who experiences the world in ways that she struggles to communicate to others. The reader is taken deep into Dylan's mind and heart and senses, in ways that are sometimes deeply humorous, and at other times deeply painful. Layers of ideas about race, identity, grief and family run through this book, but the focus never wavers from Dylan's funny and profound voice. This is a really moving, original and thought-provoking novel.' * Readings *
'[Cath Moore] brings a wealth of deep thinking on race to this beautiful and tender novel, exploring themes of familial legacies, finding a place to belong, grief, and what it means to be an Australian of mixed heritage.' * Kill Your Darlings *
'My favourite Australian book so far this year. It's one of those books that's beautifully multilayered and can be read by teens (I would recommend it for ages 14 and up), but adults will also love it. Dylan's Mum has passed away, in an accident she thinks was her fault, and now her Mum's rough gambler boyfriend Pat is driving her across rural Australia to deliver her to the Guyanese blood family she has never known, and a Blackness that terrifies her. And everywhere she goes, water is calling her. This is a debut, but it reads like a third or fourth novel: the writing is beautifully lyrical, and every character is like an absolute Masterclass in characterisation.' * Maxine Beneba Clarke *
'Refreshingly original' * ABC Nightlife *