The Tiger Project

What begins with a school project and a museum visit to an exhibition on Australia’s most famous extinct animal turns into something much more personal for Bella Brown. Does her biological father, who abandoned her soon after she was born disabled, really have more influence on her life than her stepfather, an ex-genetic engineer turned musician? And her best friend Sylvie has a crush on an identical twin – but why one twin and not the other? And if they are identical, what makes one a swot and the other a skateboarding legend? Who would have guessed a tiny pickled tiger pup could prompt so many big questions?

Bella’s cheerfully messy home-life and her conversations with a grumpy old lesbian neighbour help her to sort through these concerns about extinction and the meaning of life. And maybe The Tiger Project could even end up giving her a whole new perspective on love, genes and mad dogs with rabies.