The Pull of the Moon

Coralie threw the life jackets one by one, as hard as she could, and watched them catch on the wind and blow into the sea.

Coralie is thirteen years old and lives on Christmas Island, where sea birds circle the sky and the seasons are marked by the migratory patterns of crabs. But life on the island isn’t always paradise.

During a fierce tropical storm, a fishing boat carrying eighty-nine asylum seekers crashes into the island’s cliffs. Coralie locks eyes with Ali, an eleven-year-old Iranian boy, as his mother pulls her life jacket over his head. But soon Ali disappears beneath the waves and when his body isn’t recovered, Coralie resolves to do everything she can to find him.

Pip Smith’s The Pull of the Moon explores what happens when the urge to help collides with the unfathomable uncertainty of loss.