Memory Bones

Nitty Gritty Novels (Series I)

by Melaina Faranda

I was fascinated by the daily treasure hunt ... There were memories in those stones. Memories of another age, another time, when creatures that seemed like impossible dreams had lived on the earth. In the earliest years of the nineteenth century, as Napoleon Bonaparte's war ships patrol the English coastline, Mary Anning spends her days scouring the cliffs near her Dorset home. She looks for the fossilised remains of long-vanished sea creatures to sell to the gentry for money to feed her stricken family. Her beloved father, once a thriving cabinet-maker, is now broken in body and spirit and her mother has lost too many children to poverty and ill-fortune to love those who remain. Only Mary seems to have the determination and passion to find a way to save them all.

132 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2012

About the author

Years ago, Melaina Faranda washed up on Thursday Island penniless and soaking, with a single change of clothes, only to be loaned an entire new wardrobe and given three jobs on the first day, including working at the local bakery. Someone gave her a house to live in, people took her out fishing and told stories, and a wonderful old islander gave her the same precious gift Edie receives before returning to Cairns.

Melaina has since traveled across Australia and around the world, with many elements of these journeys finding their way into her novels, including The Circle series and Big Sky, but she has yet to discover a place where there is more generosity and open-heartedness than that shown by the Thursday Islanders.