Farren Fox has lost his mother. His brother, Danny, is over fighting at Gallipoli and his dad, a fisherman, spends his life out at sea on a couta boat named for Farren's mother, the Camille. His mate, Robbie, has lost his father at Gallipoli, and Farren worries about Danny. At fifteen, Farren is too young to go to war himself, though he is in the cadets and has left school and works in the local pub. Then tragedy strikes - his father is caught at sea in a huge storm. He drowns, leaving Farren alone until Danny returns injured and traumatised from Gallipoli. He slowly begins to improve, and the two boys begin to rebuild their lives, helped by a remarkable little girl, Souki, a part Aboriginal girl who Danny rescues from a shipwreck.
Beautifully written and brilliantly told, Black Water is the epic story of two boys' struggle to make their way in a difficult world.
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As a child David Metzenthen was a nature boy; he loved fishing and farm work, exploring the bush, and being outdoors under the stars. He also lived very much inside his own head; feeling that the world was a place of unlimited adventure. He harboured dreams of becoming a cowboy, a fisherman, a farmer, a sailor, or a writer. Instead he left home at eighteen, with a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road for company, and hitch-hiked his way around New Zealand. Returning to Australia, David worked as a builder's labourer and advertising copy writer before finding success as a writer of books for children and young adults.