The Anatomy of Wings

The Anatomy of Wings is a young adult novel for teen readers by Karen Foxlee, an Australian author of four novels for young adults. The book is set in the small mining town of “Nowheresville,” Queensland in Foxlee's native Australia, in the early 1980s. The book features two main protagonists, sisters Jennifer and Beth. Though the book is told by both narrators, the reader quickly discovers that one of the narrators, older sister Beth, is dead, and it is only the younger sister, ten-year-old Jennifer, or Jenny, who lives on. The novel follows the slow demise of Beth Day and Jenny's investigation into the reasons behind her sister's sudden transformation and death.

Jenny and her friend, Angela, are searching through Jenny's mother's closet for a forbidden box that holds mementos from Beth's life. Though the objects are ordinary – a few hair combs, a newspaper ad for secretarial school, an address, a necklace, a pair of ballet slippers, a blonde braid – they are also clues that help explain Beth's transformation from a quiet, peaceful young girl into a reckless and rebellious teenager.

The story unfolds as the significance of each of these objects is revealed. The braid is from a physical altercation Beth had with their mother – their mother took a pair of scissors and violently cut off Beth’s hair. The ad was a final attempt to save Beth from the path that she was taking, toward a violent, wayward adulthood. The necklace leads to a story about seventeen-year-old Marco, Beth's boyfriend and sexual partner whose reputation as a bad boy is part of what Jenny believes lead her sister astray.



Jenny narrates the last year of Beth's life, when she begins to drink, party, and have sex with strangers and older men. Her parents are disturbed by their eldest daughter's sudden change in behavior, resulting in a series of conflicts between Beth and her mother. Jenny, only ten-years-old, is confused by her sister's actions. She desperately wants Beth to get better, but her dedication and love for her sister make it hard for her to know whether it is better to tell the truth about her sister's behaviors so she can get help, or to keep her secrets to preserve their relationship. Much of the book depicts Jenny's confusion about why her sister is behaving the way she is; this becomes the central conflict of the novel.

Foxlee spends a significant portion of the novel setting the scene in this small town, by telling the stories of the people who live on the same street as the Day family. Jenny is an avid gatherer of facts. She spends much of the novel telling stories and recalling information about her neighbors, offering insight into the conditions the family lives in. This also offers the opportunity to dive into the personality and life of the girls' grandmother, Nanna, who offers comic relief throughout the novel.

Ultimately, the story leads to the end of Beth's life. She falls off of a water tower, and the circumstances of the accident are never uncovered by the family or the police. Foxlee does not tie up many loose ends in this novel, allowing the lingering question of whether Beth killed herself to be left up to the audience's interpretation. She also doesn't make any clear indication of whether Beth could have been saved from her self-destructive behavior, painting a clear and unbiased portrait of family life in these circumstances – Beth wants to run away, her parents try to reign her in with rules that are broken again and again and have no impact on their daughter's behavior. The book is ultimately a coming of age story and a tale about grief and its impact on a family. The novel ends without clear resolution, and with much sadness, as is often the case when a life ends prematurely.



The Anatomy of Wings, Karen Foxlee's first novel, has been published in Australia, the U.K., Canada, and the United States. She has written three other novels for young adults, including The Midnight Dress and Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy. She has won many awards for her work; she won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the Dobbie Encouragement Award in 2008 for The Anatomy of Wings, and in 2006, she won the Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Best Emerging Author. Foxlee grew up in Queensland, where The Anatomy of Wings is set, and spent most of her adult years working as a nurse until she graduated with a Bachelor's in Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Queensland in 2005.