Chapters 1-10 Quotes

Water that was always there. Always everywhere. The sound and the smell and the cold waves making Harry different. And it wasn’t just because he was the youngest. He knew the way he felt about the ocean would never leave him now. It would be there always, right inside him. (Harry) Chapter 1

He followed the marks of high tide left behind on the sand and his eyes skimmed the pebbles, the shiny jelly sacks, the broken shells. Cuttlefish were easy but shark eggs were impossible. They looked just like seaweed. He kept thinking he’d found one only to realise it was just a bit of kelp or a grimy pebble. There was hardly any point trying. But he did try. Chapter 1

Harry picked up an abalone shell, the edges loose and dusty in his hands. And every cell in his body stopped. Felt it. This place. Felt the people who had been here before, breathing and standing live where he stood. People who were dead now. Long gone. And Harry understood it, right down in his guts, that time ran on forever and that one day he would die. (Harry) Chapter 1

First day of school holidays. First day he must man the boat alone while the men go down. Old enough now, he must take his place. Just like his brother before him, he must fill the gap Uncle Nick left. (Miles) Chapter 2

There were things that no one would teach you—things about the water. You just knew them or you didn’t and no one could tell you how to read it. How to feel it. Miles knew the water. He could feel it. And he knew not to trust it. (about Miles) Chapter 2

Outside, the light was flat and even, the same grey light that there always was. Sometimes right in the middle of the day the sun shone bright and broke through, but it never made anything warm. Chapter 6

Kids at school were scared of George Fuller. Harry had only ever seen him once, standing on the side of the road, but he didn’t ever want to see him again. His face was all squashed in and he looked like a monster. Chapter 6

And if you didn’t know better, you’d think that no one lived here anymore. That all these places were abandoned. But people were in there somewhere, hidden and burrowed in. They were there. Chapter 7

And then Joe said he was leaving. Miles sat still. He looked down at the water. It was one solid dark mass, impossible to see past the surface now that the light had gone. Chapter 7

It would have survived if Jeff had just let it go, let it slide off the back of the boat. It had made it this far, battling its siblings, killing and feeding off them. Waiting. It would have been born strong, ready to hunt, ready to fight. (The baby shark) Chapter 9

‘Watch Jeff. I’ve tried telling your dad, but …’ Martin broke off. He rested his head against the cab of the ute. Chapter 9

George didn’t say much, but he seemed to be listening. He seemed to understand what Harry was talking about. Chapter 10

Chapters 11–20 Quotes

‘Don’t you get stuck here with your dad’, he said. ‘Don’t you let him…You’re too young to be out there working, Miles. It’s not right.’ Miles felt the words sink down right inside him.
‘You’ve had it rough enough’, he said. (Mr Roberts to Miles) Chapter 11

‘What am I meant to do? What am I meant to do?’ And he heard her voice rise up, familiar tears. ‘I grew up in that house, Miles. Don’t I deserve something?’ (Aunty Jean) Chapter 13

But Harry stayed where he was. He stayed among the piles of Granddad’s things left on the lawn—all the things that were no longer needed, no longer useful—and he wished that Joe would stay. (Harry) Chapter 14

‘I’ll never be a fisherman,’ Harry said, but it came out all high pitched and squeaky and he had to clear his throat and say it again. George stood up and climbed back onto the jetty. He started unloading his lines and tackle box and buckets from the dinghy. Jake jumped out too. Chapter 17

Chapters 21–30 Quotes

He lived for this, for these moments when everything stops except your heart beating and time bends and ripples—moves past your eyes frame by frame and you feel beyond time and before time and no one can touch you. (Miles) Chapter 22

Jeff rammed the glass against Harry’s mouth and forced his jaw open. The liquid poured in and Harry gasped and choked. Chapter 24

Then they heard Dad yelling from inside. Yelling at them, at everyone. Yelling at no one. And Miles could hear the words. They came through the brown walls, through the air, and cracked open the night: ‘I never wanted you.’ Chapter 24

And her voice was small, but he heard her. A whisper. ‘I left here once. But I came back.’ Miles moved closer. He felt for her hand. (Mum and Miles) Chapter 26

And it nearly made Harry cry now, the way Miles’ eyelid was all purple and cut—the bruise on the side of his face coming up bad. Harry put his hand in his pocket and felt for the sock that held his leftover money. He pulled it out. ‘You should take this’, he said. ‘You might need it.’ (Harry) Chapter 27

Miles usually just got chips and sometimes potato cakes because he never ate flake. Even the smell of it made him sick. It was bad luck to eat shark. Chapter 27

It was past nine. Maybe she’d missed the bus. Maybe the bus was late. There was only one. If you missed it, there wasn’t another. (Girl near shop) Chapter 30

Chapters 31– 43 Quotes

Harry leaned his head back against the chair and thought that if Miles got lost, if Miles never came home, Harry’s insides would go wrong and they might never come right again. If Miles got lost. Chapter 31

He hadn’t seen them since he was young, since Mum, and he had forgotten about the lights in the sky. The coloured lights that pulsed and shone and breathed life across the dark plains. Endless. Close but nowhere. The green and yellow ripples of light. The Southern Lights. And they stayed until he fell asleep. (Harry, The Southern Lights) Chapter 34

‘It’s his’, he said, and his face went pale. ‘His.’ He let the tooth go. He stared down at Harry.
‘She was leaving, because of him. Because of you.’ (Mr Curren) Chapter 36

But ultimately it wasn’t up to you. This ocean could hold you down for as long as it liked, and Miles knew it. Chapter 37

There was a black emptiness inside him and it was all that he could see. He tried to imagine a fire in the darkness, and at first it was just one blue flame too small to feel. But he willed it on, felt the first flicker of warmth as it grew. Then it raged, turned into a ball of fire, orange and red and hungry. It devoured his stomach, moved up to his lungs, his back. Moved into his heart. He shared it with Harry through his skin. (Miles) Chapter 37

He listened to Joe talk about all the places they would go, the tropical islands and clear warm water, the big bright lights of new cities. The free open space of ocean. And he knew that Joe was going to take him with him, now. Wherever he went. He leaned his head down against his brother’s shoulder. And he let himself cry. (Miles) Chapter 41

Miles let the rip that ran with the bluff carry him. He enjoyed the ride, felt his hands slipping through the cool water, body floating free. And there was this feeling in him like when it had all just been for fun, the water. Chapter 42

Miles looked up at George, his eyes full of tears.‘You found him,’ he said. ‘Harry.’ And George nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said softly. Chapter 43

And Miles loved that light. It made the dark water sparkle, turned the white spray golden—made the ocean a giant mirror reflecting the sky. Even the leaves on the crack wattle shone in the light. It made everything come to life. Chapter 43

Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water—black and cold and roaring. Rolling out an invisible path, a new line for them to follow.
To somewhere warm.
To somewhere new. Chapter 43