Between us by Clare Atkins
Black Inc, 2018. ISBN 9781760640217
(Age: 14+) Highly recommended. KIN016 - this is Ana's number. She is
an Iranian asylum-seeker brought from Nauru with her mother and 3
year old brother Arash to temporary detention in Darwin, because her
mother is expecting a baby and is suffering from pre-eclampsia. Ana
is haunted by the memories of something that happened to her in
Iran, something she can't talk about, but coming to Darwin means
that at last she can go to school, learn English and study her
favourite subject, Science. And it is there that she meets Jono, the
trouble-maker at the back of the class. Jono and his friends are
bored with school and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. But his
attention is caught by the nerdy girl with her head wrapped tightly
in a scarf.
The story is told in the alternating voices of the three main
characters: Ana, Jono and Jono's father Kenny, just starting as a
security guard at the detention centre. The three voices are so
real: Ana - fearful and uncertain but desperate to learn; Jono -
rebellious, in conflict with his father, finding escape in heavy
music and risk-taking; and Kenny - struggling as a single parent,
not knowing how to handle his son, and suspicious of the motives of
the young detainee.
It is a beautifully written book, the voice of Jono initially
written in verse, and that of Ana in prose, but then this is
reversed as their interests change and develop. Eventually as the
pace builds, a sentence begun by one will be finished by the other
as each picks up the story.
Atkins vividly brings to life the world of the teenagers - the
uncertainty and doubt, the budding friendship, the mistakes and
misunderstandings. Ana and Jono's romance is threatened in so many
ways. The tension in the relationship between Ana, Jono and Kenny
gradually builds to an explosive crisis point . . .
Atkins has obviously researched the world of the detention camp: the
traumatised asylum seekers, separated from family, always in fear of
jeopardising their refugee application, and the hardening attitude
and indifference of the guards as they enforce cruel and meaningless
rules. Newbie guards either harden or break. Kenny is afraid of
which way he will go.
The book gives a fictional expression to the experience of cruelty
and hopelessness described in the non-fiction No
man is an island (2016) by Adele Dumont, about her
time as an English language tutor at Curtin detention centre in
Western Australia. In fact students could compare the two books for
a transformation task, picking up on the minor character of the
naive caseworker Eliza in Between us and consider the story
from her perspective, as a worker in the detention centre.
Between us is a truly gripping story, the voices draw you in,
and then the pace builds so that it is impossible to put down. I
read this in one sitting and was left reeling at the end. It is such
a powerful story, extremely well written, the people and situations
are so authentic, you know as a reader that while Ana, Jono and
Kenny are fictional, their story reflects real people and real
situations.
Helen Eddy
