This collection tells a life—many lives. Janson's book begins with childhood, and a tribute to her father, Neville. This is one of several deep and enduring relationships—including those with her "Kaathi Sister" Jenny Ebbsworth, and with her beloved but troubled brother, Brian. Julie's commitment to writing poetry “that is beautiful, evocative and deeply moving ... impelled by truth telling and the celebration of kin, country and the power of memory” (Paul Daley) is compellingly evidenced in poems such as "The Smallest Violin in the World" and "Hallelujah Praise the Lord." The focus softens and broadens as the book steps from childhood into the thick of life; the particularities of autobiography and family merge with myth; the scope of imaginative sympathy expands, and the individual story, Julie Janson’s own, becomes the story of the suffering and resilience of a people. In the end, the circle of the book’s compassion expands to embrace "all God's creatures"—the victims of the Black Summer fires, a lost and bewildered stranger in an airport, an Indian beggar, a starving dog.