This is a really beautiful read. Arnott sets out to evoke the awe we feel for the wondrous around us. This is a modern fable without a hint of arch, that doubles down on sincerity. The world of creatures Arnott creates, in particular, as so gorgeously sketched they feel as if they simply must be real. It's certainly not sappy - these characters do things they aren't sure they can forgive themselves for, and thanks to Arnott's very visceral writing, we're not sure we can either. But this is a story about moving into the future, and how to do that, we all have to learn how to live with ourselves. And perhaps most of all, it is how that is perhaps easiest to do when we live in an environment that doesn't centre us.
I feel like that hasn't read said anything helpful, so this a lyrical book set in a mountain forest, and a harbour town suspiciously like Hobart, and deserts and farmland, and it is peopled by largely broken people, who remember not being broken, and some who have survived less broken than others. It's relatively short, often brutal but with such care that it is never jarring. And really, it's written to entertain, there are themes here, but the stories are well told and that will keep you reading.