The Whale's Last Song

Once upon a time, a young girl ventured into a dark forest, looking for a cure for her much-loved elder sister ... A touching, tender and lyrical fable about love, sacrifice and atoning for our mistakes.

As a terrible pandemic rages through the small medieval hamlet of Villingraz, a young girl, Estie, accompanied by her goat Isabel, sets off into the forest, in search of a cure for her sister who is infected with the pox. Her father Merdocai has surrendered himself to the evil Marquis to be experimented upon for the Greater Good; and with her mother long-dead, all Estie has to keep her going is the love of her sister, her father and her friend Rainer, a stuttering poet.

As Estie ventures deeper into the forest, she encounters creatures and teachers who hold the answers to all the questions she has about who she is, and where she has come from. Meanwhile, out in the depths of the ocean, a whale is returning to the place he was born, to exhale his last breath. While Estie does not know this, he too holds secrets that belong to Estie's story.

The Whale's Last Song is a touching, tender fable, a parable what we must sacrifice for those we love; a rumination on the tragic mistakes in every life - and the steadfastness that is required to overcome those mistakes - and a love song to the natural world. It is The Alchemist meets The Princess Bride meets The Little Prince. It is a little gem.

'An exquisite story threaded through with heart and compassion, underpinned by immense wisdom, insight and hope. .. a bright ode to all that is good and beautiful in the world. The Whale's Last Song is a timeless tale, an allegory of the heart.' Maggie Hamilton

'Joanne's writing is beautiful. The Whale's Last Song is a fresh, exquisite fictional work. It is a creative tour de force of an idea, born in a phase of Joanne's life a few months after she lost her beloved mother ... It is a piece of art which involves the reader in a new world and a new way of seeing. Both challenging and reassuring, the story weaves a sense of belonging and the fallibility of being human and the mysteries of being alive.' Suzie Miller, Prima Facie