Sorry Rock
ISBN: 978-1-0671324-1-52
Find me here where the sea meets the land
Where the rocks are black and so is the sand
On the wild west coast of Aotearoa New Zealand, twelve-year-old Ned lives with his mother in a bach above Te Henga’s black sand beach. He is thoughtful and observant, the sort of boy who knows that too much in his life is unexplained. His cousin Hugo is different. Restless, he pushes towards trouble. Alice stands apart from them, older, still tethered to memories of a childhood in the Northern Territory.
With an ochre rock at the beating heart of this story, their journey draws Ned, Hugo, and Alice from New Zealand’s volcanic shoreline to Australia’s red desert. Along the way, they begin to uncover the silences surrounding the women who raised them, absent fathers, and the consequences of choices made long before they were old enough to question.
TO BE LAUCHED IN AUGUST. CAN BE PURCHASED FOR AUGUST DELIVERY.
Compelling, moving and grounded in two remarkable landscapes. Henry reminds us, in shining
prose, that family and connection to place are often tangled, and the deepest emotions unspoken.
Sometimes we need to return to a place to understand who we are and what is home.
- Inga Simpson, author of Once We Were Wildlife
From the black sands of Te Henga to the red dust of Australia’s outback, Sorry Rock follows five
family members as they grapple with their past. Gritty in every sense and achingly real, it’s utterly
compelling.
- Jennifer Lane, author of Miracle