Far from Home (Street Child): The sisters of Street Child

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Powerful and thought-provoking historical fiction about two young girls growing up in Zimbabwe years apart. Far From Home brings hope to an impossibly difficult situation and gives a face to the nameless millions who have been uprooted from their homes. Far From Home also made me think about the realities for some workers today in countries with unscrupulous working practices, and how we in the privileged West can at least try to make purchases from ethical sources.

We at Penguin Random House Australia acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the Traditional Custodians and the first storytellers of the lands on which we live and work. I thoroughly enjoyed how beautifully and evocatively written this book is… it has left me wanting to know more. While I didn't feel as emotionally connected to Katie's story or to her outlook on her and her family's way of life, I was able to understand a bit how things had reached such a point. I took my references from several of these, and learnt about the different kinds of machinery by visiting working and educational mills such as the one at Cromford in Derbyshire.In Never Far From Home, fifteen-year-old Emma Miller finishes school, starts her own wool business, and is longing for someone to court. More will be revealed in due time, they promise, but for now, There is a problem with your license is all I’ll get. But then came a suggestion from HarperCollins that I might consider writing a companion book to Street Child.

Although Far From Home is set some years later, and many reforms had been created by then, it is likely that they were only gradually and perhaps rarely fully implemented, especially in rural areas. This is a story of loss, refuge, and hope in Christ that will be meaningful to both children and adults. It's heartbreaking to read of the suffering of these people but despite it all, inside Tariro still burns with hope and the strength to endure. As their two worlds collide, Tariro and Katie are forced to confront their prejudices, dark family secrets and the truth of their turbulent history. A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences.Having also been separated from their younger brother, Jim, the girls have to learn how to live their lives not knowing whether he is dead or alive, and not knowing if they will ever see him, or their Mother again. And the story ends at the point it gets most interesting, when the different worlds of the central characters collide far from the land they love.