Penguin Books Australia

Gripping and intense, complex and richly imagined, Froi of the Exiles is internationally best-selling and multi-award-winning author Melina Marchetta's dazzling sequel to Finnikin of the Rock.

Blood sings to blood, Froi . . .
Those born last will make the first . . .
For Charyn will be barren no more.

Three years after the curse on Lumatere was lifted, Froi has found his home - or so he believes.

Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been trained roughly and lovingly by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family, and has learned to control his quick temper.  But when he is sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn, nothing could have prepared him for what he finds.  Here he encounters a damaged people who are not who they seem, and must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad Princess.

And in this barren and mysterious place, he will discover that there is a song sleeping in his blood, and though Froi would rather not, the time has come to listen.

Praise for Froi of the Exiles:

'Marchetta again demonstrates her fearlessness in exposing humanity at its ugliest, but also at its noblest, as her damaged characters struggle to rebuild their lives. The precipice on which Marchetta leaves readers will have them aching—but also terrified—to discover what comes next.'

Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

'For fans, this is a must-read; newcomers to Lumatere's story will dive in with enthusiasm.This epic has everything readers can ask for: great characters and a truly spectacular plot filled with romance, suspense, friendship and betrayal.'

Kirkus Review

'Marchetta's imagined world swallowed me whole and I wanted to stay in it.'

Lorien Kaye, The Age

'Charged with sexual tension, internecine politics and violent changes of both fortune and allegiance, this is a complex, memorable fantasy.'

Katharine England, Adelaide Advertiser

'The strength of Froi is not any 'gotcha' moment, but, rather, the detailed and complex and sympathetic world of Charyn, a world that in Finnikin the reader was told was dark and now turns out to be — not light, but, rather, one with shades of gray. This is an ugly story, beautifully written; a story of both the harm that people can inflict, and the healing. It is about need and forgiveness. It is about hope, but the hope that is earned by blood and tears, the hope that is willed into being because of a desire that life should be better than what it is.

Lest this sound too emotional, too romantic, rest assured it is also action packed. It is, after all, about war; about killing a king; about rebellion. Froi is someone who prefers to uses his fists.

Froi is also funny, in the type of real-world way that people are, a bit sarcastic and flip. Sometimes the humor is dark, the type of humor used in tough situations.

This is, no doubt about i, one of my Favorite Books Read in 2012. Because I fell in love with Froi, and Quintana, and the Charynites Froi meets on the way. Because like Froi, I began to forget the task he had to do and what his new friendships would mean to those left back in Lumatere.'

School Library Journal http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/teacozy/2012/03/05/review-froi-of-the-exiles/