written John Marsden
first published in 2000

The first major book from Australian author John Marsden since the extremely popular Tomorrow series. After reading the rest of the books in Tomorrow series this book does seem a bit short, but it still was good to read something new from this author.

The story is centred on a sixteen year old girl called Winter who has been living with relatives since she was orphaned at an early age. As she had been having trouble with the people she was living with Winter decides to return to the country to try and take over the running of her parents farm.

On her arrival in the country she has to deal with the caretakers on her parents farm, the new responsibilities she has chosen to burden herself with and try to find new friends.

While she knows how her father died, the circumstances surrounding her mother's death are still a mystery. However she has heard that she has a reclusive distant relative living in the area who may be able to tell her what happened if she can just find her...