ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Rose wants to be alone but instead she's on a road trip of discovery with her mother. This is a warm, generous novel big on family dynamics and a rich portrait of a feisty young girl facing up to love, loss and life's big issues.

'Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? You make a wrong move, and before you know it you're in some weird scene that isn't you but ... how do you get out of it? Maybe you lied, maybe you stole, maybe you betrayed your closest friend. It happens. Yeah. Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because ... you can't be trusted.' Rose is all packed up. She's got a van full of petrol and a stack of CDs. She's got a surfboard in the back and a secret that won't go away. But that's okay. She also has enough attitude to light up the night sky. Then her mother decides to come along ... and Rose's road trip takes an unplanned U-turn, straight to the heart of last summer. Maureen McCarthy is the ninth of ten children and grew up on a farm near Yea in Victoria. After working for a while as an art teacher, Maureen became a full-time writer. Her novels have been shortlisted for numerous awards and include the In Between series, which was adapted from scripts Maureen co-wrote with Shane Brennan for SBS TV; Ganglands ; Cross My Heart ; Chain of Hearts ; Flash Jack ; and When You Wake and Find Me Gone . Her bestselling and much-loved book Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude get a life was made into a highly successful four-part mini-series for ABC TV. Maureen has three sons and lives in Melbourne.