The Anatomy of Wings

A powerful and touching coming-of-age story set in the Australian outback, as ten-year-old Jennifer Day tries to come to terms with her sister's suicide, learning something about herself - and about life - along the way.

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Jennifer Day is ten years old, and she lives with her family in a small dusty mining town in Queensland. She likes to make lists of natural catastrophes; her best friend Angela has just acquired her first training bra; and her elder sister, Beth, has committed suicide. Her mother spends day after day on the sofa barely speaking; her father has moved out; and her beloved grandmother has been banned from the house.

As Jennifer tries to piece together the last year of Beth's life, she reflects on her sister's fragility, her slide into bad company, her under-age drinking (and under-age sex), Jennifer also begins to understand something of the secret world of teenagers. As wickedly funny as it is heartbreaking, this is an unforgettable account of growing up and coming to terms with grief.