The Sky So Heavy

April 5, 2013
As post-apocalypse YA novels go, this one is scarily realistic. Fin and his little brother Max are left to fend for themselves after a nuclear winter falls over their home in the Blue Mountains. The slightly radioactive snow is the least of their problems though, as electricity is out, food is scarce and people are starting to grow violent in their desperation. Fin and Max must act to avoid starving to death, as it has become evident that the government has abandoned outlying areas. In search of their mother, a high-ranking government official, the boys and their friends Arnold and Lucy manage to get through the heavy security surrounding Sydney, only to become illegal refugees in their own country. This is a powerful allegory with which to explain the asylum-seeker humanitarian crisis in Australia. The Sky So Heavy is about selective blindness—Sydneysiders choose to remain blind to the fact that others are being left to starve to death, just as Fin once turned a blind eye to the bullying of Arnold in school. Claire Zorn’s debut novel explores living with your choices—and other people’s. Though the situation is desperate, there are little rags of luck along the way that are just enough to create a believable sense of hope at the end. This is definitely a novel for more mature readers aged 15-plus.

Kate Sunners is a former Brisbane bookseller