White Foam

Shortlisted for Hachette Publishing’s Richell PrizeAfter a suspension from his university job, twenty-eight-year-old Marc leaves Canada for the Australian coast, hoping six weeks beside the ocean will quiet the dissatisfaction that has followed him for years.Instead, he witnesses a freak wave claim the lives of two young people.What begins as an accident quickly unsettles the small town of Mooringa. As grief spreads through the community, long-standing resentments and racial tensions rise to the surface. Though no one accuses Marc directly, he becomes increasingly entangled in the lives of the families left behind-and in the question he cannot escape:could he have done more?As guilt gives way to obsession, Marc’s careful emotional distance begins to fracture. The town people demand certainty where none exists, while Marc discovers that refusing to act is itself a choice.Set against the beauty and violence of the Australian coastline, White Foam is a literary suspense and coming of age novel exploring responsibility, belonging and the uneasy feeling between innocence and complicity.Perfect for readers of Tim Winton, Ian McEwan, Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan, Albert Camus, J.M. Coetzee and Michel Houellebecq, White Foam explores guilt, belonging, alienation, masculinity, shame, anger, and the moral cost of remaining a witness. It is a novel about forgiveness and what we owe each other after tragedy-and the price of avoiding ourselves. The past will find us, no matter how far we run or how well we hide. 6