Lyla A Novel

Lyla has just started her second year of high school when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake shakes Christchurch to pieces. Devastation is everywhere. While her police officer mother and trauma nurse father respond to the disaster, Lyla puts on a brave face, opening their home to neighbors and leading the community clean-up. But soon she discovers that it's not only familiar buildings and landscapes that have vanished—it's friends and acquaintances too. As the earth keeps shaking day after day, can Lyla find a way to cope with her new reality?

Fleur Beale is the author of I Am Not Esther and Walking Lightly. In 2012 she won the Margaret Mahy Medal for her outstanding contribution to children's writing, and in 2015 she was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature.