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  • Published: 18 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9781761047206
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $19.99

Looking for Alibrandi




A deluxe hardback edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the multi-award-winning and bestselling YA classic beloved by so many.

Multi-award-winning, a bestseller and made into an award-winning feature film, Looking for Alibrandi has become a much-loved modern classic.

I’ll run one day. Run for my life. To be free and think for myself. Not as an Australian and not as an Italian and not as an in-between. I’ll run to be emancipated.

Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen and in her final year at a wealthy girls' school. This is the year she meets her father, the year she falls in love, the year she finds the real truth about her family – and the identity she has been searching for. The year she sets herself free. Multi-award-winning and a bestselling modern classic beloved by so many, Looking for Alibrandi will stay with you always.

This special deluxe hardback edition contains an exclusive preface by the author, as well as photographs, letters, reviews, articles and mementoes from the time of its first publication and reception, and extracts from the original edited MS and Melina’s correspondence with her editor and publisher.

'I love this book for its passion, its commitment to life, its bubbling ideas, its warmth and vivacity.' Moira Robinson
'A novel to rejoice in. A story from the heart.' Australian Bookseller and Publisher
'An extraordinarily intelligent and passionate novel, written with remarkable self assurance.' The Age

  • Published: 18 October 2022
  • ISBN: 9781761047206
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $19.99

About the author

Melina Marchetta

Melina Marchetta is an internationally bestselling and award-winning author in more than twenty countries and eighteen languages. Her eighteen books range from beloved young adult fiction and fantasy through to contemporary and crime fiction, and works for younger readers. Her much-loved Australian classic Looking for Alibrandi swept the pool of literary awards when it was published, and was also released as a film, adapted by Marchetta, winning an AFI Award and an Independent Film Award for best screenplay, as well as the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award and the Film Critics Circle of Australia Award. In 2009 Marchetta won the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association. Her most recent novel is The Place on Dalhousie. She lives in Sydney.

Also by Melina Marchetta

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Awards & recognition

3M Talking Book Award-NSW

Winner  •  1993  •  Talking Book

KOALA Children's Choice Awards

Winner  •  1993  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

BILBY Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  1993  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

KROC Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  1993  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

WAYRBA Children's Choice Awards

Winner  •  1994  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

BILBY Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  1994  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

CROW Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  1994  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

YABBA Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  1994  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

BILBY Children's Choice Awards

Winner  •  1995  •  Prize for Writing for Young Adults

BILBY Children's Choice Awards

Winner  •  2000  •  Older Readers

REAL Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  2001  •  Fiction for Older Readers

Discover more

Article
Why everyone is obsessed with Melina Marchetta (again)

Melina Marchetta is having a moment in 2022. Find out what the author has been doing and learn about recent developments regarding her beloved debut novel, Looking for Alibrandi.

Video
What Zola Did on Saturday by Melina Marchetta and Deb Hudson | Book trailer

Buy now: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/what-zola-did-on-saturday-9781760895211 A wonderful children’s series celebrating community, friendship and kindness from the bestselling author of Looking for Alibrandi. Fun, heartwarming stories full of mischief and humour, sure to charm and engage newly independent young readers. Zola loves living on Boomerang Street with her mum and her nonna. Every day of the week is an adventure. But Zola has a problem. No matter how much she tries, she can't keep out of trouble. Like on Saturday, when it’s tomato day at Nonna Rosa’s and Zola is helping out . . . Collect all seven stories in the series. One for every day of the week! #WhatZolaDidonSaturday #MelinaMarchetta #DebHudson

Article
Looking for Alibrandi

Looking for Alibrandi