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A01=Gary Lonesborough
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
ages 14+
Author_Gary Lonesborough
automatic-update
belonging
body image issues
Books for kids aged 14
Category1=Kids
Category=YFB
Category=YNM
Category=YXHL
Category=YXS
CBCA shortlisted
CBCA winner
coming-of-age
COP=Australia
country town
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_personal-social-topics
eq_teenage-young-adult
family
First Nations
First Nations Australians
football
footy
footy books
fresh start
friendship
friendships
grief
Heartstopper
Indigenous
Indigenous author
Language_English
LGBQITA+
local footy team
LoveOzYA
memories
new friends
PA=Not yet available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Forthcoming
queer
queer romance
Romance
rugby
self-acceptance
sexual identity
softlaunch
The Boy from the Mish
unresolved past
White Raven
YA romance
young adult fiction
Product details
- ISBN 9781761180767
- Weight: 334g
- Dimensions: 128 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 03 Sep 2024
- Publisher: Allen & Unwin
- Publication City/Country: AU
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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WINNER: 2025 CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers
SHORTLISTED: 2025 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Indigenous Writing
'A moving coming-of-age story with so much heart. For readers who enjoyed Heartstopper.' BOOKS & PUBLISHING
Footsteps approach behind me. I turn and see an Aboriginal boy arriving at the doorway. He's tall, taller than me. He's got curly hair. His body is fit. His chest is chiselled and bare and he's wearing only football shorts.
When 17-year-old Jonah arrives in a new town - Patience - with his dad and younger brothers, it feels like a foreign place. A new town means he needs to make new friends - which isn't always easy. Especially when he's wrestling with his body image, and his memories of his mother.
When he joins the local footy team so he can spend more time with his new crush, Harley, he feels like he's moving closer to something good. But even though he knows what he wants, it doesn't mean he's ready.
Emotionally compelling, honest and warm, I'm Not Really Here is a beautiful novel about navigating family and friendships, and finding a way through grief towards love, from an internationally acclaimed bestselling First Nations author.
Praise for Gary Lonesborough
'What a revelation this young writer is. He is doing something no other male First Nations novelist has attempted: the YA Blak queer genre that is a glimpse into another world view, at once confronting yet heartwarming.' - AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW [We Didn't Think it Through]
'A lightning bolt to the soul. The Boy from the Mish announces a bold, necessary new talent.' WILL KOSTAKIS
SHORTLISTED: 2025 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, Indigenous Writing
'A moving coming-of-age story with so much heart. For readers who enjoyed Heartstopper.' BOOKS & PUBLISHING
Footsteps approach behind me. I turn and see an Aboriginal boy arriving at the doorway. He's tall, taller than me. He's got curly hair. His body is fit. His chest is chiselled and bare and he's wearing only football shorts.
When 17-year-old Jonah arrives in a new town - Patience - with his dad and younger brothers, it feels like a foreign place. A new town means he needs to make new friends - which isn't always easy. Especially when he's wrestling with his body image, and his memories of his mother.
When he joins the local footy team so he can spend more time with his new crush, Harley, he feels like he's moving closer to something good. But even though he knows what he wants, it doesn't mean he's ready.
Emotionally compelling, honest and warm, I'm Not Really Here is a beautiful novel about navigating family and friendships, and finding a way through grief towards love, from an internationally acclaimed bestselling First Nations author.
Praise for Gary Lonesborough
'What a revelation this young writer is. He is doing something no other male First Nations novelist has attempted: the YA Blak queer genre that is a glimpse into another world view, at once confronting yet heartwarming.' - AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW [We Didn't Think it Through]
'A lightning bolt to the soul. The Boy from the Mish announces a bold, necessary new talent.' WILL KOSTAKIS
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience in youth work, Aboriginal health, child protection, the disability sector (including experience working in the youth justice system) and the film industry. His debut YA novel, The Boy from the Mish, won the Booktopia FAB Debut Book Awards and the Ena Noel Award and was shortlisted for the CBCA Awards, the QLD Literary Awards, The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Indie Book Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards, the NSW Premier's Awards and was selected as a White Raven. It was published in the US in 2022 under the title Ready When You Are. His second novel, We Didn't Think It Through, was published in 2023 and won the Marion ACT Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the Readings Young Adult Prize, and was a CBCA Notable Book.
