Tight Lines

By: Allee Richards

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Paperback | 30 June 2026

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Paperback

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23.4 x 15.3 x 1.5

Paperback

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I never meant to get so drunk. Each time it happened I swore it would be the last time and the next time I had a drink I believed that I could chug it down and it’d somehow end different …

Luke, Josh and Matty live for the summer: surfing, fishing and drinking. When Millie joins their crew, life feels even sweeter. But, like the wild coast they call home, where the tide can change from safe to catastrophic in an instant, one decision irrevocably changes the lives of all involved.

In their twenties, they try to recapture the freedom they took for granted when they were young. But they are not the same people and there is no going back.

Set against the nostalgic backdrop of small-town coastal life in the 2000s, Tight Lines is a moving, transformational novel that explores the sometimes devastating consequences of our choices – and how, with hope and friendship, we can keep on living anyway.

About the Author

Allee Richards' short fiction has been published widely in Australian literary magazines and anthologies. Her debut novel, Small Joys of Real Life, was shortlisted for the 2019 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers and the 2020 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her second novel, A Light in the Dark, was published in 2023. Allee lives in Melbourne and works as a theatre lighting technician.

Industry Reviews

‘Tight Lines is storytelling at its finest; a novel highlighting the hidden trauma and secrets that often accompany the "coming of age". Allee Richards balances emotion and drama with superb writing, inviting us to reflect on the complexities and dangers of youth.’

– TONY BIRCH, author of Women & Children

‘A heartbreaking, exceptional novel of deep emotional truth. Tight Lines is a profound exploration of growing up in the shadows of tragedy. I loved it.’

– MARK BRANDI, author of Wimmera

‘A sun-bleached story of friendship, risk and the strange loyalties that shape young men. Heartfelt, funny and impossible not to love.’

– BRANDON JACK, author of Pissants

‘All salt and sunlight, but with the sharpest of edges. Tight Lines earns every ounce of its impact and will leave a mark that won't fade. Like love, like sex, like life: everything is so easy, until it isn’t.’

– ROBERT LUKINS, author of Somebody Down There Likes Me

‘Tight Lines is a memorial to the promise and perils of youth, rendered in prose that is bright, tender, warm, and wry. A quiet triumph.’

– LIAM PIEPER, author of Appreciation

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