No More Boats - by Felicity Castagna (Paperback)

About the Book

"A finalist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2018, No More Boats is not only a riveting story of a modern family it directly addresses issues that many nations around the world are grappling with as never before--namely, immigration, xenophobia, protectionism, racism, media manipulation, unchecked urban property development, and the precariousness of the working poor. Set in Sydney's working-class western suburbs, No More Boats tells of a family whose unraveling lives collide with a refugee crisis known as the Tampa Affair, when over 400 hundred refugees were left stranded fifteen miles off the Australian coast. The story revolves around Antonio, an Italian immigrant, his wife Rose, with a rich back story of her own, and their two children, Nico and Claire, both, in their owns ways, drifting. After a work-related accident forces him into early retirement and the familiar scaffolding of work, family, the immigrant's dream of betterment, is removed from his life, Antonio's mind begins to fragment. Manipulated by the media and made vulnerable by his feeling of irrelevance, Antonio commits an act that makes him a lightning rod for the factions that are bitterly at odds over the Tampa Affair and the "immigrant question." No More Boats is an unbiased, moving, original, important story about the world we live in, the families we come from, the raw impulses that we attempt to conceal."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A "timely and powerful" novel that provides "a haunting and compassionate consideration of the question of who can and cannot come into a country" (Publishers Weekly).

Set in Sydney's working-class western suburbs, No More Boats tells of a family whose unraveling lives collide with a refugee crisis known as the Tampa Affair, when over four hundred refugees were left stranded fifteen miles off the Australian coast.
The story revolves around Antonio, an Italian immigrant, his wife, Rose, with a rich back story of her own, and their two children, Nico and Clare--both, in their owns ways, drifting. After a job-related accident forces him into early retirement and the familiar scaffolding of work, family, the immigrant's dream of betterment, is removed from his life, Antonio's mind begins to fragment. Manipulated by the media and made vulnerable by his feeling of irrelevance, Antonio commits an act that makes him a lightning rod for the factions that are bitterly at odds over the Tampa Affair . . .
A finalist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2018, No More Boats is not only a riveting story of a modern family; it also directly addresses issues that many nations are grappling with--immigration, xenophobia, protectionism, racism, media manipulation, and the precariousness of the working poor--and is "full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world" (Kirkus Reviews).

Review Quotes

Praise for No More Boats

"A lightly spun story that, while never preachy or didactic, is full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world." --Kirkus Reviews

"No More Boats is a striking work of suburban Australian realism. [...] Castagna makes an essential point about the connection between our long history of cognitive dissonance when it comes to settlement, migration and dispossession, and how necessary it is that we try to remember and connect in order to maintain our humanity." --Georgia Delaney, Readings

..".illuminating and...thought-provoking." --ANZ Lit Lovers

"No More Boats offers us a way of understanding the contradiction of one migrant turning against others. This is an important book." --Donata Carrazza, Australian Book Review

"If we need new ways of speaking to each other, novels such as this can only help." --The Saturday Paper

"In a beautifully observed study of migrants who are acceptable (the Italians, the Greeks), tolerated (the Vietnamese) and deplored (the asylum seeker "flood" of the 21st century: Muslim terrorists!), Castagna shows how fear of the other infects even a 'successful' multicultural society." --Martin Shaw, Books+Publishing

"No More Boats is a book that should be read slowly and considerately, because every detail is significant. It's an engaging and gripping second novel from Castagna...and one can only hope that there's more of the same still to come." --Westerly Magazine

"Through the lens of a fictional suburban family, Castagna has created a novel that is both memorable and vital in reminding us to consider where we come from." --Right Now

About the Author

Felicity Castagna won the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction for her previous novel, The Incredible Here and Now, which was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council of Australia and NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and adapted for the stage by the National Theatre of Parramatta. Her collection of short stories, Small Indiscretions, was named an Australian Book Review Book of the Year. Castagna's work has appeared on radio and television, and she runs the storytelling series Studio Stories.