The Good Parents - Joan London
Random House $32.95
By Nina Cullen
When Toni and Jacob de Jong arrive to visit their 18-year-olddaughter, Maya, in Melbourne, they find she has simply disappeared.
As the parents investigate her vanishing, they are flung into separate orbits and begin to question the life choices that have brought them here.
The focus flickers between different members of Maya's family, but the characters are united by a sense of disorientation as they struggle to adjust to unfamiliar mind-sets and environments.
London switches perspective among the different age-groups with great dexterity.
The characters may be confused by the generation gaps but the author has got them all worked out.