Book excerpt: `an outstanding piece of writing...a powerful novel...? Reading Time Friendship is a slippery notion. We lose friends as we change and our friends don?t, or as we form other alliances, or as we betray our friends or are ourselves betrayed? In the pearling town of Broome, against the backdrop of World War II, a young man and a young woman fall in love. Hart is the son of a pearling master, Mitsy the daughter of a Japanese diver. Can their love survive as Japan enters the War and Mitsy encounters prejudice and hate? In this beautifully written novel, Garry Disher evokes a war-devastated Australia and its effects on young adults forced to leave their childhood behind.