In Keeping Faith the innocence and certainties of childhood are delicately tested against the realities of adult life. Josh and Gracie grow up in a working class world centred on the values of faith and family. Both cherish their father, a lay preacher, and their mother, but for Josh the complex secrets, doubts and subtleties of the world do not allow for certainty. In adulthood he works as a labour ward attendant, his younger sister Gracie as a nurse on a remote mission station in Papua New Guinea. While Josh’s conviction falters, the unfailing faith of his sister leads to tragic consequences. As events move between 1975 and 1994, between a family drama in outer suburban Melbourne and a tribal rebellion in Melanesia, faith and doubt become entwined.
In the spirit of the work of Tim Winton, Keeping Faith is a remarkable debut novel about the beauty and disappointments of childhood, family and belief, about losing faith and finding love.
‘Subtle and finely crafted. A novel of intellectual and emotional intensity.’ - Steven Carroll, author of The Time We Have Taken
Roger Averill is the author of the critically acclaimed Boy he Cry: An Island Odyssey.(Transit Lounge 2009).
Roger Averill
Boy He Cry: An Island Odyssey
$29.95 – Trade paperback / Transit Lounge
Two young Australians arrive unannounced on a remote Melanesian island and ask its residents if they can live with them for a year. Granted this request, cut off from the outside world, living without electricity, teleph... Buy or find out more →
Keeping Faith
$29.95 – Paperback book / Transit Lounge
In Keeping Faith the innocence and certainties of childhood are delicately tested against the realities of adult life. Josh and Gracie grow up in a working class world centred on the values of faith and family. Both cher... Buy or find out more →