Why a Booktrail?
2000s: How far would you go to have a family? What would you hide for someone you love?
Let Her Go
What you need to know before your trail
Confused and desperate, Zoe McAllister boards a ferry to Rottnest Island in the middle of winter holding a tiny baby close to her chest, terrified that her husband will find her or that her sister will call the police.
Years later, a teenage girl, Louise, is found on the island, unconscious and alone. Flown out for urgent medical treatment, when she recovers she returns home and overhears her parents discussing her past and the choices that they’ve made. Their secrets, slowly revealed, will shatter more than one family and, for Louise, nothing will ever be the same again.
Travel Guide
Rottnest Island
Rottnest Island sits just offshore from the city of Perth. It’s the ideal place to escape to as it’s a protected nature reserve, home to the quokka, a small wallaby-like marsupial.
There are plenty of secluded coves and white sandy beaches and secluded coves. Thomson Bay is the main hub and ferry port. Strickland Bay the ‘surfing bay’ whilst Radar Reef, known for its surfer breaks off the island’s far western tip.
“[Zoe] held out her right hand, palm up, as she had been taught as a child, and looked at the silhouettes of islands on the horizon. Her thumb pointed at Rottnest; her index finger to Stragglers Rock; her middle finger to Carnac Island, where Lachlan fished, returning with stories of sea lions and tiger snakes; her ring finger to Garden Island; and her pinky to Penguin Island. The palm of her hand, right here where she lived and where her daughter now lived, was Fremantle. She smiled and curled her palm tightly closed, holding onto home, onto family.”
The setting is a real force in the book, revealing the isolation, claustrophobia and the loneliness of the subjects within.
Streetview Maps
A) Rottnest Island - harbour
D) Little Salmon Bay
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Let Her Go
Author/Guide Dawn Barker Destination: Rottnest Island Departure Time: 2000s
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