We are so excited about Vivian Pham’s new book The Coconut Children. Here’s what the blurb says:

Growing up can feel like a death sentence

Life in a troubled neighbourhood demands too much too young. But Sonny wouldn’t really know.

Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance.

Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs at fourteen. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and a porn stash for them to meet again.

Sheila interviewed Vivian for the Sydney Writers’ Festival and penned a long essay about The Coconut Children and what it represents for Sydney Review of Books too.