Subhi is a refugee. He was born in an Australian permanent detention
center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant
homeland, and the center is the only world he knows. But every night,
the faraway whales sing to him, the birds tell him their stories, and
the magical Night Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts. As
Subhi grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of
the fences that contain him. Until one night, it seems to do just
that.
Subhi sees a scruffy
girl on the other side of the wire mesh, a girl named Jimmie, who
appears with a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to
read it herself, Jimmie asks Subhi to unravel her family's love songs
and tragedies that are penned there.
Subhi and Jimmie
might both find comfort -- and maybe even freedom -- as their tales
unfold. But not until each has been braver than ever before and made
choices that could change everything.