In truly tragic style Fan’s life was doomed from the beginning. She was never sure when she would feel the sting of her mother’s violent temper and longed to escape to the blue hills she could see from her bedroom window. Shy and timid Clementine thought there was something magical about her cousin Fan and admired her feistiness and determination.
Clementine had a cosy life with a loving mother and father, private school education and then university ,fulfilling all her parents' dreams , but she worried often about her country cousin , writing letters but expecting no reply because she knew poor Fan found reading and writing difficult.
The author describes Fans life as “ a kind of anguished disappointment [as] if you were in the desert and had this single flask of water you’d been saving for the moment you got so thirsty you couldn’t stand it any more – and then the moment came and [you ]found the water had trickled away through a hole you hadn’t known was there”
A poignant and tragic ending to the story reminds the reader of the importance of offering a little kindness to a fellow human being in trouble.
Shortlisted in CBCA Older Readers category 2010
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