Melina Marchetta is the multi-award-winning author of Finnikin of the Rock, which won Australia’s Aurealis Award and was an American Library Association Top Ten Best Fiction Title for Young Adults; Jellicoe Road, a Michael L. Printz Award winner; Saving Francesca and its companion book, The Piper’s Son; and Looking for Alibrandi. About Froi of the Exiles, the second title in a projected trilogy, she says, “It explores nature versus nurture and blood bonds versus friendships, but ultimately it’s a love story between a whole lot of people who should have given up on each other long ago — yet still find it in themselves to hope again.” Melina Marchetta lives in Australia.