If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Published by Indigo, 2013.

This is a powerful debut novel from Emily Murdoch. The story proves the healing power of love and its ability to triumph over the most harrowing life experiences.

From the age of five, Carey has lived in a camper van in the woods with her younger sister, Jenessa and their mother, whose life revolves around getting her next fix and who leaves the girls alone for weeks on end.

One morning as Carey, now a teenager, is preoccupied with how she might possibly cook their beans again, to make a meal for herself and her sister, strangers arrive in the woods and nothing will ever be the same again.

Carey’s world crumbles around her as she packs the few possessions she and Jenessa own and they make the only choice they can, to leave the woods and succumb to the care of the authorities.

Because Carey has no choice but deal with the awfulness of her life, even horrendous experiences are presented in a matter of fact way. Her biggest challenge of all will be to re-inhabit a world she has been cruelly forced to forget.
The sisters’suffering can only be ended if Carey can reveal a secret that may have the gravest of implications for her little sister.

The book is full of hidden twists and enexpected revelations and the author never shies away from the sheer grittiness of the girls’ lives. The reader’s sadness and horror at what the girls must endure is compensated for in some way by the excellent writing which from the first page draws you in.

“This latest powerful and accomplished adolescent novel from the US is fuelled by a strong, individualistic voice in the tradition of Huck Finn”
Carole Redford, Inis Magazine, Summer 2013