AustLit

'Small Fish Big Fish is the poignant coming-of-age story of Stephen McBride, a seventeen-year-old desperate to escape the strife and poverty of his home town.

'The cause of most of Stephen's problems is Archie Stewart, a complex puzzle of explosive violence, desperate cunning, and hidden desires.

'The aspirations of the two boys are reflected in their respective loves. Julie is a witty, idealistic, attractive young woman who breaks through Stephen's crippling shyness and shines hope onto his apprehensive heart. For Archie, it is Tianyi, the beautiful, soft-spoken girl from China with a painful past who brings adoration and love into his otherwise hardened and loveless life.

'Despite these beacons of hope, the road ahead is a dark one for Stephen and Archie. Stephen wants to avoid the vices surrounding him, but is inexorably drawn towards them; and the more he struggles, the tighter he is caught in Archie's scheming web. Archie is desperate to escape the tenements and the life of debauchery he leads, but chooses crime and violence as the instruments to fund his way out. For both Stephen and Archie, these choices have consequences.

'A story of the bonds of friendship and love; of despair and hardship; of supportive families and abusive ones; of rising above and sinking below; of the moral and emotional effect that growing up in a dog-eat-dog world can have on youth–Small Fish Big Fish is a story that will stay with you long after the last page is turned.' (Publication summary)