'Alien Son, in simple yet rich language, is the story of a Russian family settling in Australia in the years before the first World War.  Waten tells of life in his home, among the family's Jewish friends, among his new Australian playmates, on his father's bottle-o rounds - of their hopes, despairs, the comedies and tragedies - all told with the warmth, understanding, and sometimes lack of understanding, that is felt by a child finding himself between the two worlds.  His attempts to reconcile the demands of these two worlds rarely meet with success; often they end in situations that are at once poignantly sad and humorous.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Australian Classics ed.).