Novi is an 11-year-old boy growing up in the fictional small town of Morus on the NSW north coast. As the main character in Adrienne Ferreira’s debut novel, Watercolours, Novi’s perspective sets the scene for thestory of a regional town full of people who know too much about each other’s lives.

Novi’s grandfather was drowned when the river flooded five years ago, but Novi, a talented and precocious artist for his young age, believes that the river ‘murdered’ him. Dom Best, a young primary school teacher, new to rural life and to Morus, doesn’t fully grasp the history and allegiance of the various townspeople he works with and befriends, but he is determined to assist Novi in the development of his art. Eventually, Novi’s paintings and drawings of the townspeople, the crows and the river itself, lead to the unearthing of long-held suspicions and guilt.

Ferreira is clearly intimate with the workings of small towns; this shows in her story of a boy grieving for his grandfather. With the Rotary Club, the bad coffee shops, the predominance of sport over art, and the constant tension between locals and tourists, she creates the world of the Morus community convincingly. There is much to like in this first novel, and while the story itself doesn’t quite lift off the page, it does pull the reader along, much like the ever-present Lewis River, one of the main characters in Watercolours.

Pip Newling is a writer and staff member at Readings Hawthorn. You can follow her blog