Only the Heart

Only the Heart
ISBN: 9780702233760
Publication Date: 25 November 2003

When logic says the dream is beyond your reach, only the heart knows the truth...

From the chaos and the fear of post-war Saigon, and the terror of pirates on the open ocean, to the triumph and tragedy of new life, Only the Heart is the story of Toan and Linh, and a family that endures the nightmare, in search of the dream.

'Only the Heart is an outstanding book; a tense, exciting, moving and wholly engrossing read' Magpies

'An exceptionally well told and moving story; a most perceptive, searing and unforgettable account of the Vietnamese boat people' Austral Ed Book News

About the Author

Brian Caswell spent his very early years in the mountains of Wales moving to England for seven years before emigrating with his family to Australia at the age of twelve. He remembers his mother writing and reading stories to the family, and of being immersed in books from an early age. He thinks he is the only kid to have a letter sent home to his parents asking them to stop him reading. Equally central to his life as reading is his love of music. Beginning at the age of ten he had a successful career as a singer and writer of songs - one of his songs made the top 40. In the late 70's he moved out of the music industry.

Brian started teaching in 1976. Of his years as a teacher he says:'I loved teaching; for twelve or fourteen years I loved it. But when I stopped loving it, I stopped loving it totally.' Teaching English was, in a roundabout way, what got Brian into writing. Around the mid-eighties he found that many of the books set for classroom study were no longer making any impression on students. So he thought he would write one himself. He admits his first book wasn't at all good - but it was good enought for Barbara Ker Wilson, the editor for young adult fiction a...