Pool

Short-listed for the 2008 Victoria Prize for Young Adult Fiction Justin D'Ath's Pool is a beautifully modulated novel that explores adolescent transitions and discoveries in seamless prose. Sixteen-year-old Wolfgang Mulqueen works at the public swimming pool in New Lourdes, Victoria, where pilgrims from across the world travel to test the waters curative powers. In the course of a long hot summer, Wolfgang is forced to confront his own strengths and limitations. D'Ath juxtaposes intriguing characters, metaphors and events - a blind girl, a black butterfly, a tragic 18-year-old mystery - to create a truly original work. Pool is a powerful and moving novel about love, death, faith and family. ** Something strange has happened to the public swimming pool in New Lourdes, Victoria. The water is no longer level and is rumoured to have curative powers. When sixteen-year-old Wolfgang Mulqueen takes a summer job at the pool, he meets Audrey, a blind girl who claims she's nocturnal. With the discovery of a butterfly unknown to science, and an unusual request from Audrey's father, Wolfgang finds himself inextricably drawn into an eighteen-year-old mystery, the tragic resolution of which will change his life forever. Something strange has happened to the public swimming pool in New Lourdes, Victoria. When sixteen-year-old Wolfgang McQueen takes a summer job at the pool, he is drawn into a mystery which will change his life forever. Suggested level: secondary