Cirrus@Austlit

'Cathy arrives in Alice Springs from cattle country, looking for a new way to live. But new is a serious challenge for a girl who's used to being measured by her actions, not her feelings. Feelings are slippery, like water. Hard to hold onto.

Jay is working for the local radio station, far from his own saltwater people, wary of this no-water country. He's searching for something, trying to survive.

Margie is a wild city girl, up for a good time, confronted by a world she's never known and a friend she can't always understand.

When lives collide at the heart of the country, no one stays unchanged.' - back cover

'More than a love story, this is a bold, confronting book about friendship, love, sex and identity at the heart of Australia, where black and white, bush and city collide.' (Publisher's blurb)

''Once, not long ago, and in a place not far from here, a baby girl was born. Eva. In that same moment, in a place far away on the other side of the world, an egg cracked. The tip of a tiny beak poked through, and a curlew chick was born. Sister Chick.'

'Eva dreams of places far beyond her own backyard. While other kids go by, fooling around with their friends, Eva is watching, listening for the call of a curlew flying high overhead; waiting for the bird with the long slender beak. And when the curlew finally arrives, Eva goes on a magical journey, flying with Sister Chick from the distant marshlands of Siberia to the ancient southern land of Australia.'

Source: Book jacket.