Last year, Hartnett won the world’s largest prize for children’s and youth fiction, the Swedish Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, named after the creator of Pippi Longstocking. She doesn’t necessarily see herself as a writer for young adults but is delighted that people of all ages can enjoy her books. Her latest offering is an intriguing story about a girl, her budding friendship with the beautiful and sophisticated neighbour Maureen, her peer group struggles and the frustrations that families can create.

Plum is about to turn 14 when the world as she knows it starts to unravel. She tries desperately to be a part of the group of girls who gather under the trees at lunch time but they are cruel and unpredictable – until they find ways to use her for their own amusement.

Plum has two older brothers, Justin and Cydar, and it is the interaction between the siblings that sets this novel apart from anything else I have ever read. Their relationships with each other are complicated and sometimes heartbreaking.

At the end, when Cydar has sold the precious fish he collects to buy Plum the birthday present she most desires, “she feels the wrongness of loving Justin too much, and of never loving Cydar enough”.

Justin is in a secret relationship with Maureen and all along the reader has a sense of foreboding. This simply cannot end well.

Hartnett has the kind of writing style that grows on you. At first I was wondering what all the fuss was about – she has been hailed as the “finest writer of her generation” – but then exquisite turns of phrase appear out of nowhere and begin to linger at the back of your mind.

You want to keep reading even when it is painful to know what is happening to the characters. And believe you me: painful it certainly is. Read it yourself to find out. – Penguin, $29.95