'Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.
'But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle's death.
'And in a year when everything's broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.'
Source: Melina Marchetta's website, http://www.melinamarchetta.com.au/
Sighted: 09/11/2009
Teachers' notes from publisher’s website.
Dedication:
Saving Francesca
Camberwell
:
Viking
,
2003
Z1019212
2003
single work
novel
young adult
(taught in 6 units)
'Sixteen-year-old Francesca could use her outspoken mother's help with the problems of being one of a handful of girls at a parochial school that has just turned co-ed, but her mother has suddenly become severely depressed' (Source: NLA).
'There was a time when Melina Marchetta resented the success of her first novel, Looking for Alibrandi, a beloved Australian book for young adults.'
'Marchetta followed up 11 years later with Saving Francesca, also set in Sydney's inner west, and for a while she felt typecast as a writer of "good stories about Italian girls in the suburbs". ...'
