Rosa is not the only character with the Calm, nor the only one with ghosts to lay to rest. Shine is a dual narrative set in Mirasol and England, and eventually the storylines collide. (That and the fact that she's a darned good writer.) It is not necessary to know that Gourlay herself is an exile of sorts, having left the Philippines to make a home in London, but – lifting that curtain and taking another peep at the mechanics of it all – it does help to explain her insight. The book is about reinvention and the faces we present to the world, whether it be in person, on a postcard or on the internet, all wrapped up in an exciting and perfectly paced story with a disturbing and dramatic climax. Gourlay has created something very special here a precious and important novel that also explores exile from neighbours, family and country. A candle's flicker and heat has the same throb of life.'īut don't be under the illusion that this is merely a modern folktale or a toe dipped in the waters of magic realism. Apparently ghosts 'search for the life force gone from them … And that's why they are drawn to candle flames. Rosa lights candles around the house to try to attract her mother's ghost. 'How could it be so heavy,' she wondered, 'if mothers was all burned up?'

Rosa and her father simply collected the ashes and she held them in a box on her lap. But, despite what she may say or think, she is not the true monster something her father, a doctor, and Yaya – who has lived with them since Rosa's mother died – keep trying to tell her. It's incurable …' It means that she cannot speak, and that – just like the terrifying girl of the fable – she has 'hideous' welt-like scars around her neck and is, therefore, shunned by most of the superstitious islanders. 'It's got a proper medical name, of course something long, unpronounceable, forgettable. Rosa has what the locals call 'the Calm'. Yaya and Rosa live on the island of Mirasol, where it always rains.

'Slowly his lungs shrivelled into stones.' He dies and the girl is nowhere to be found. She drinks in the atmosphere around her, sucking the air from the boy. On land, in the back of the fisherman's pickup truck, the girl's eyelids flutter. There are terrible marks on her neck, 'as if a noose of a rope had been tied tight around it'. They manage to get her into their boat, but she's not breathing. A fisherman and a boy find a girl floating in the ocean. The book begins with a fable told by Yaya to the young Rosa.

Tall story by candy gourlay