The Coconut Children

By Vivian Pham

From the winner of the SMH/Age Best Young Novelist of the Year and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year.
Growing up can feel like a death sentence

Life in the troubled neighbourhood of Cabramatta demands too much too young. But Sonny wouldn't really know.

Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance.

Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and an unexpected discovery for them to meet again.

The Coconut Children is an urgent, moving and wise debut from a young and gifted storyteller.