Sessions, Tash’s childish voice in italics] in ‘Then’. newspaper articles, transcripts of psychiatry Students findĭifferences in the style [e.g. Structure & Text Types The novel is structured into ‘Now’ and ‘Then’ sections. Prize, the Aurealis Awards, and longlisted in the Indie Book Awards.

Ready orīeen shortlisted in the NSW Premier’s LiteraryĪwards, the Australian Book Industry Awards, the Readings Young Adult Book Despite Tash’s hard-won escape from her childhoodįears and fabrications Sparrow may be back and “Coming to get you. The disquiet of its derelict skeleton in the present as well as by Tash’s AuntyĪlly’s decaying house “with its crack-riddled stucco like the caked-on face The ominousĪtmosphere is heightened by the cacophonous carnival setting of the past and Her current struggle to be truthful and her longing to be trusted. Losing her and Tash’s shame at the red-herrings she gave the police and notīeing the one who was taken, still impinge on their lives.įlashbacks told in Tash’s childish voice and newspaperĪrticles and therapy transcripts written in a clinical tone are juxtaposed with Mallory’s seven-day disappearance in the past, Morgan’s guilt at Mute and home-schooled and Morgan and Tash tentatively rekindle theirįriendship. Mallory, her older brother Morgan and their parents moveīack to the NSW mid north coast where the novel is set. Her psychiatrist told her that she invented Sparrow, her menacing imaginary friend who made her play games and locked her in a box, because she wanted attention when her baby brother was born.

Now Tash doesn’t trust her memory and fears small spaces, especially the small space inside her head. As a child, she saw Mallory Fisher taken from the carnival by an “imaginary monster”. Something happened in Tash’s past that continues to affect her life.

Small spaces sarah epstein