Hilda Hinton

So I've been really enjoying those series at the moment.

Well,

Her brother went ice skating and fell through the ice and drowned, basically.

And Yaz, the sister, noticed that he didn't take his little ice pick with him as he was leaving because she wanted to go with him but she was considered too small.

And so as he was walking off, she didn't tell him that he'd left it behind because she was focused on the fact that she was too small to go.

and he dies.

Yeah, yeah, and Christmas is derailed, and the Christmas tree's packed up, and all the food's been given away, and yeah, it's this sort of terrible sort of tragedy within the family, but the kids don't quite have a handle on it, and they don't really see why the world's falling apart, and the body of the brothers left in the lounge room for

some days with a viewing window that they all sort of take it in turns to look through.

And she sort of starts getting a sense then that he's never coming back.

But also there's deep religious overtones, because if Jesus can come back, maybe Matthews can.

That's the event that sort of shapes the book and the downfall of each family member one by one.

She does.

She does.

It's uncomfortable, but it's beautifully honest.

I loved the sort of tragedy.

I loved the way they dealt with the tragedy through all the different eyes, the coming and going of the guilt, the anger.

Yeah, I was very impressed.

And to think they're so young to be writing like this, it's just mind-blowing.

Well, the mother starts almost shrinking, doubling over, stops eating, stops cooking,

just completely disengages.