Author(s): Victoria McHalick

NZ Fiction

A young boy is searching for his fugitive pet rabbit when he hears a piano playing in the grand house next door. Safe in the darkness, he climbs the ivy-covered wall to spy on the man who can turn music into pictures... For Hamish Harrison, the encounter is a pivot on which his life turns. As his mother dances an uneasy romantic tango with the new man in her life, Hamish wrestles with his own versions of love. His rabbit, his grandfather, his music and the girl next door ? which one will deceive him? With a refreshing yet deceptive lightness of tone, this haunting debut novel explores the edge of innocence, where the desire for goodness meets an animal instinct to dominate. Victoria McHalick is one of our brightest new writers. In 2001 her collection of short stories, The Honey Suckers, was published to critical acclaim.i