Kindle Price: $11.99

Save $6.00 (33%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Felicity Castagna
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

No More Boats: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Felicity Castagna (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 47 ratings
See all formats and editions
A “timely and powerful” novel that provides “a haunting and compassionate consideration of the question of who can and cannot come into a country” (Publishers Weekly).

Set in Sydney’s working-class western suburbs, No More Boats tells of a family whose unraveling lives collide with a refugee crisis known as the Tampa Affair, when over four hundred refugees were left stranded fifteen miles off the Australian coast.

The story revolves around Antonio, an Italian immigrant, his wife, Rose, with a rich back story of her own, and their two children, Nico and Clare—both, in their owns ways, drifting. After a job-related accident forces him into early retirement and the familiar scaffolding of work, family, the immigrant’s dream of betterment, is removed from his life, Antonio’s mind begins to fragment. Manipulated by the media and made vulnerable by his feeling of irrelevance, Antonio commits an act that makes him a lightning rod for the factions that are bitterly at odds over the Tampa Affair . . .

A finalist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2018, No More Boats is not only a riveting story of a modern family; it also directly addresses issues that many nations are grappling with—immigration, xenophobia, protectionism, racism, media manipulation, and the precariousness of the working poor—and is “full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world” (Kirkus Reviews).
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    204 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Europa Editions
  5. Publication date
    February 26, 2019
  6. File size
    3281 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for No More Boats

"A lightly spun story that, while never preachy or didactic, is full of timely lessons for those pondering the rise of me-first nationalism throughout the world." --Kirkus Reviews

"No More Boats is a striking work of suburban Australian realism. [...] Castagna makes an essential point about the connection between our long history of cognitive dissonance when it comes to settlement, migration and dispossession, and how necessary it is that we try to remember and connect in order to maintain our humanity." --Georgia Delaney, Readings

..".illuminating and...thought-provoking." --ANZ Lit Lovers

"No More Boats offers us a way of understanding the contradiction of one migrant turning against others. This is an important book." --Donata Carrazza, Australian Book Review

"If we need new ways of speaking to each other, novels such as this can only help." --The Saturday Paper

"In a beautifully observed study of migrants who are acceptable (the Italians, the Greeks), tolerated (the Vietnamese) and deplored (the asylum seeker "flood" of the 21st century: Muslim terrorists!), Castagna shows how fear of the other infects even a 'successful' multicultural society." --Martin Shaw, Books+Publishing

"No More Boats is a book that should be read slowly and considerately, because every detail is significant. It's an engaging and gripping second novel from Castagna...and one can only hope that there's more of the same still to come." --Westerly Magazine

"Through the lens of a fictional suburban family, Castagna has created a novel that is both memorable and vital in reminding us to consider where we come from." --Right Now

About the Author

Felicity Castagna won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction for her previous novel, The Incredible Here and Now, which was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and adapted for the stage by the National Theatre of Parramatta. Her collection of short stories, Small Indiscretions, was named an Australian Book Review Book of the Year. Castagna’s work has appeared on radio and television, and she runs the storytelling series Studio Stories.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07FNBDNR6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Europa Editions (February 26, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 26, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3281 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 204 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 47 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Felicity Castagna

Felicity Castagna

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
47 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Heather Castro
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read for Teens and Adults.
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
Wonderful book for both teens and adults. The argument of immigrants/ immigration is a topic that can be applied to pretty much every country in the world. It is interesting to see the perspective of the characters within.
Helpful
 Report
Jill I. Shtulman
4.0 out of 5 stars "Me first" nationalism -- Australian style
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2019
No More Boats takes place in a working-class suburb of Sydney, Australia. But it could just as easily take place in a working-class area in London, Paris, Munich – or here in Texas or any number of other states. In fact, the crisis at the center of it – allowing a boat load of refugees into Australia – was so familiar that many times, I forgot the novel was not set in the U.S.

Antonio Martone, an Italian immigrant to Sydney, is at the center of the book. He and his friend Nico were hired to construct McMansions, but lately, the already inferior quality has taken a big hit. When an accident ensues, leaving Antonio with no choice but to retire, he begins to get increasingly obsessed with the nationalists in his neighborhood. His wife Rose and his two aimless children Clare and Francis are powerless to prevent Antonio’s downward spiral.

Here is Clare’s summary of her father: “I just think, he’s old and he’s angry that he’s not in control anymore. He’s always had a thing about migrants these days not working as hard not trying to fit in as much as he did…That’s it, maybe, he can’t handle change.” The problem goes beyond that, of course Antonio realizes that “life doesn’t really bring you into the future, it just throws you further and further into the past.” His own feeling of powerlessness and superfluity is the spark of his anger that eventually propels Antonio to the headlines.

The themes of belonging, national identity and transition, exploited by the media and the politicians, mines the cognitive dissonance and clear insanity of immigrants turning against more recent immigrants. At times, the message becomes too overt (as it is in the quote I used above). At a time when we have become inured to terrified asylum seekers being jailed, children being placed in cages, and exaggerated tales of “caravans” panicking our own countrymen, the current debate has shifted from “who is a citizen” to “who is human.” Yet the raw impulses triggered by fear and tribalism always lurk beneath the surface.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
D. Hawthorne
3.0 out of 5 stars Juvenile Ending
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2018
The ending was juvenile. The writing was not noteworthy. As a character study of Antonio and Rose, this novel shows the brutal treatment of migrants to Australia, and how this brutal treatment was then carried over to refugees.

This brutality leads to the suicide of Rose's mother and Antonio's descent into madness and isolation.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
kathleen g
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2019
Set in 2001, the central point of this is an incident involving migrants to Australia that I was unfamiliar with. Told from the perspectives of Antonio, an Italian who had himself migrated to Australia, his wife and his two adult children, it's an interesting look at attitudes at the time. Have things changed? Thanks to Edelweiss for the opportunity to read this intriguing and thoughtful novel.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
M. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars The best Australian novel I've read this year
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017
The best Australian novel I've read this year. Castagna tackles the most crucial of social issues and sets her work in Sydney's western suburbs, which is in many ways the heart of contemporary Australian culture.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Angie
4.0 out of 5 stars A great read
Reviewed in Australia on July 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
Thoroughly entertaining. A uniquely Australian novel that weaves the mundane with the politics of the time (2001). A slow burn character driven plot, this was cleverly written and engaging. Felicity Castagna does a wonderful job of highlighting the irony and cognitive dissonance inherent in a nation of immigrants (and their descendants) that are hostile to refugees and asylum seekers. I loved the nod at the end of the book to the role of the media in shaping public opinion. A great read.
Report
D. Hawthorne
3.0 out of 5 stars Juvenile Ending
Reviewed in Australia on August 6, 2018
Verified Purchase
The ending was juvenile. The writing was not noteworthy. As a character study of Antonio and Rose, this novel shows the brutal treatment of migrants to Australia, and how this brutal treatment was then carried over to refugees.

This brutality leads to the suicide of Rose's mother and Antonio's descent into madness and isolation.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report