Me and Ev

Me and Ev is a historical novel set between 1860s London and 1870s colonial Australia. It follows sixteen-year-old Tom Ballard, a tough, observant boy from South London who stows away on a merchant ship-only to discover another stowaway hiding in the dark: Everard Fort, quiet, refined, and far from ordinary. Together, they survive hunger, evasion, and a brutal murder on board. But once they reach Australia, their paths begin to diverge in ways Tom could never have predicted. Years later, Tom-now a struggling journalist with a child on the way-watches as Everard, now revealed as Everard Beaufort, son of a British lord, rises to fame as a political figure in the new federation. As the country builds itself from the bones of empire, Tom begins to write the story of the boy he knew-and the secret they never spoke of again. Told in Tom's plainspoken, perceptive voice, Me and Ev is a powerful meditation on friendship, class, memory, and identity-perfect for readers of Kate Grenville's The Secret River, Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, and Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang.