A special thanks to Jim Bourke, who answered my very naive questions about the work involved in returning to their families the six Australian servicemen left behind during the Vietnam War.

All of the characters appearing in this novel are fictional creations. Any resemblance to real people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Some aspects of the rugby league matches referred to in this story have been fictionalized for the purposes of my narrative.

MELINA MARCHETTA is the acclaimed and multi-award-winning author of Finnikin of the Rock, an Aurealis Award winner; Jellicoe Road, a Michael L. Printz Award winner; Saving Francesca; and Looking for Alibrandi. About The Piper’s Son, which reintroduces characters from Saving Francesca, she says, “Tom’s aunt Georgie spoke to me first, and Tom found me through her. At the time, I didn’t actually think Tom was a big enough character to carry a story. If it had to be anyone from Saving Francesca, I thought, it would be Will Trombal or Tara. But a line in Francesca, ‘I want to be the first male in the Mackee family to reach forty and still have his liver,’ stuck with me, and in the end, Tom has been one of my biggest surprises. I’m glad I didn’t kick him out of my head.” Melina Marchetta lives in Australia.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

Copyright © 2010 by Melina Marchetta

Cover photograph copyright © 2011 by Barry Gnyp/UpperCut Images/Getty Images

Lyrics to “Here If You Want” by the Waifs (p. 50), “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” by Stars (p. 279), and “32 Flavors” by Ani DiFranco (p. 280) all reprinted by permission. Lyrics to “How to Make Gravy” by Paul Kelly (p. 101) reprinted by kind permission of Paul Kelly and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Australia. Excerpt from “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors” (p. 102) copyright © 2007 by The Editors, written by Thomas Michael Smith, Christopher Dominic Urbanowicz, Russell Leetch, and Edward Owen Lay, reprinted by permission of Kobalt Music Publishing America Inc. obo Soul Kitchen Music Ltd. Excerpt from “Japan” from Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins (p. 210) copyright © 1998 by Billy Collins. Reprinted by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

First U.S. electronic edition 2011

First published by Viking/Penguin Books (Australia) 2010

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Marchetta, Melina, date.

The piper’s son / Melina Marchetta.

p.  cm.

Summary: After his favorite uncle’s violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears that no one else is, either.

ISBN 978-0-7636-4758-2 (hardcover)

[1. Family problems — Fiction. 2. Grief — Fiction. 3. Dropouts — Fiction. 4. Musicians — Fiction. 5. Family life — Australia — Fiction. 6. Sydney (N.S.W.) — Fiction. 7. Australia — Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.M32855Pip 2011

[Fic] — dc22    2010039168

ISBN 978-0-7636-5458-0 (electronic)

Candlewick Press

99 Dover Street

Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

visit us at www.candlewick.com