Nicole Abadie

The only reason that the two parents who are completely traumatised by the loss of the older brother or the possible sale by the father are

all that the mother can think about is getting this older boy back.

And the way that the father persuades the mother to allow Lady Flowerbody to stay is by saying that she will help them to find Brother Ali.

She will help them to bring him back.

And then there's some very funny scenes between Lady Flowerbody

and Momo, and some as well between her and Ellie, but I won't give too much away.

I agree, Kate.

I don't think that we ever find out exactly what they are, although I agree with you, I think that's how they start.

Something that does become apparent is that not everyone can see them.

So Mutt can see them and he's the first one that talks about them and describes them.

But there is an air generally of the unworldly about the novel as a whole and that becomes even more emphasised or...

towards the end of the novel.

I won't say too much about that except to say that there is a little bit of magic realism thrown in, I think, to this novel and The Redbirds are possibly an instance of that.

What about you, Nicole Aberdee?

I've just finished reading over the weekend a wonderful non-fiction book by an Australian writer called Lee Kaufman called Imperfect.

It is a book...

about her own struggle to live inside a body that is scarred.

She sustained scars to her chest as a child when she had a heart surgery and she sustained very bad scars on her left leg when she was involved in a car accident at the age of 11.

She's done a PhD looking at the subject matter of imperfect people and she's spoken to a

She really talks in this book about how it feels to inhabit a body that isn't perfect, to live inside a body that's scarred.