Nona and Me

Rosie and Nona are sisters. Yapas.


They are also best friends. It doesn’t matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life.


The girls are inseparable until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they’re in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie prefers to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena and her gorgeous older brother, Nick.


When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she have to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?


Highly commended, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
Longlisted, 2015 Inky Awards
Shortlisted, 2015 Childrens Book Council of Australia


‘A fascinating book, beautifully told, with rich insight into a deeply Australian but little known community.’ —Jackie French

‘Rosie’s story brims with the joy and pain and complexity of friendship and love at sixteen. I adored this smart, heartfelt book about family, kinship, country, and finding out what really matters.’ —Fiona Wood


‘A delicate, quiet tale that you’ll … think about long after the book is finished.’ —Pop.Edit.Lit


‘Clare Atkins’ debut novel is a triumph: a coming-of-age tale that celebrates friendship and loyalty, family and community. Here is a striking new voice in Australian youth literature, and her story is one that will surely leave its mark.’ —Kill Your Darlings


‘Atkins has chosen difficult terrain for her first novel and mapped it with honesty, style and insight.’ —Adelaide Advertiser


‘Nona & Me … journeys into some remarkable places … a complex and moving story.’ —Cooma-Monaro Express


‘Clare Atkins delivers a polished, unflinching book that deserves to be read’ — the Age


‘[Clare Atkins] wrestles with some of this country's most hotly debated political issues with a rare lightness of touch. [Nona & Me is] a convincing portrait of a naive but feverish first love, friendships waxing and waning, and the clash between fitting in and sticking to your values. Above all, there's a warmth and optimism that's hard to resist.’ —Sunday Age


‘Highly recommended.’ —Readings Monthly


‘A powerful coming-of-age story … Atkins writes with clear-eyed sensitivity, and although I longed to hear Nona’s voice, its absence is deliberate and effective. Nona & Me is poignant young-adult fiction invoking the complex and often overlooked realities of remote indigenous life.’ —Sydney Morning Herald


‘Clare Atkins writes about a place and a time with love and care, and explores a complicated and fraught situation with honesty and respect … Nona & Me is one of those wonderful books that takes you deeply into a rarely seen world and brings it vibrantly to life.’ —Books + Publishing


‘This [is a] powerful, beautifully contoured story of cross-cultural friendship.’ —the Weekend Australian

‘[Nona & Me] is written in a clear, poetic style that creates a powerful sense of place as the story moves between communities, time and cultures, with a strong narrative pull that increases in tension until the very end.’ —ABC Local Radio Central West NSW 
‘An unforgettable read’ —Good Reading Magazine


Clare Atkins has worked as a scriptwriter for many successful television series including All Saints, Home and Away, Winners and Losers and Wonderland. Nona and Me is her first book, which she wrote while living in Arnhem Land.