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  • Published: 4 January 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143203421
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $19.99

The Piper's Son




A brilliant, heart-wrenching novel about families, love and forgiveness from the internationally bestselling and multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta.

Two years after his favourite uncle was blown to bits in a London Tube station, Tom has hit rock bottom. He's quit uni and turned his back on his music and everyone that once mattered to him, including the girl he can't forget. But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, starts working at the Union pub with his former friends, and winds up living with his grieving, alcoholic father again.

In a year when everything's broken, Tom's in no shape to put the pieces back together. But what if no one else is either?

From internationally bestselling and award-winning author Melina Marchetta comes a brilliant, heart-wrenching novel continuing the story of the characters from her acclaimed novel Saving Francesca.
Longlisted for the 2011 Miles Franklin Literary Award
Shortlisted for the 2011 Prime Minister's Literary Award
Shortlisted for the 2011 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award
Shortlisted for the 2011 Queensland Premier's Literary Award
Shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Award: Older Readers
A CBCA Notable Book
Longlisted for the 2001 Golden Inky Award

  • Published: 4 January 2016
  • ISBN: 9780143203421
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • 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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Praise for The Piper's Son

The characters are alive and vibrant on every page of this perfectly crafted story about families, relationships, love and forgiveness

Good Reading

Outstanding fiction . . .

The Sunday Age

While it is a sequel to the brilliant Saving Francesca, The Piper's Son works as a stand-alone book. Indeed it's a story so full of heart – sorrowful, but warm and funny – it won't be easy to forget.

The Sydney Morning Herald

'The Piper's Son left me breathless with heart pounding — it is a beautifully written love song about the flaws and strengths of family and the long journey of grief, about the love and laughter and disappointments that tie people together.'

A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Tom's voice is utterly convincing and it's a satisfying experience to watch Marchetta take a broken fragmented and frequently unlikable character and piece him back together, word by word . . . Outstanding fiction.

The Sunday Age

'For all their talk of broken homes and migrant families, Marchetta's novels are fantasies of community and belonging.'

The Weekend Australian

This story with its cast of rounded, beautifully crafted characters and dialogue shining with humor, pathos, and a vital spark, makes for a fiercely emotional and entertaining read.

Bookseller and Publisher

The characters are amazing. Flawed, realistic and loveable. I admit after reading Saving Francesca I had a bit of a crush on Thomas Mackee and this book didn't help with that.

'Irresistible Reads

Awards & recognition

Inky Awards

Longlisted  •  2010  •  Gold Inky Award for an Australian Book

Queensland Literary Awards

Shortlisted  •  2010  •  Young Adult Book

NSW Premier's Literary Awards

Shortlisted  •  2011  •  Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature

Prime Minister's Literary Award

Shortlisted  •  2011  •  Young Adult Fiction

WAYRBA Children's Choice Awards

Shortlisted  •  2011  •  Older Readers

CBCA Book of the Year Awards

Notable Book  •  2011  •  Older Readers