I am not Esther - a new edition of this best-selling New Zealand classic

I am not Esther has been in print for 14 years and is still a popular bestseller. First published in 1998 — and reprinted many times — the book has been a ‘Silver Premier NZ Bestseller’. It has enjoyed international success: the rights for the book were purchased by Hyperion in the US, an imprint of Disney, and Australian rights were also sold at the time of publication. I am not Esther won an Honour Award in the 1999 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards and won the Storylines Gaelyn Gordon award for a much loved book in 2009.

An enthralling and compelling portrait of a teenage girl going through her worst nightmare, this is a classic young adult novel that delves into questions of identity and inner strength — a gripping psychological thriller at its best.

This fabulous read is reissued with a newly updated jacket.

I am not Esther is a favourite among schools and was always one of our bestselling young adult books every year, shares Editor Barbara Larson. ‘Kids seem to like this story for its suspense and because they can easily identify with Esther/Kirby. It’s a compelling story that confronts the sometimes conflicting influences of family solidarity and a young woman’s sense of herself.

‘Fleur doesn’t portray the closed religious community as all bad. In many ways the ‘closed community’, as she has written, is supportive and caring, but she subtly  reveals the underlying destructive abuse of power within the community’s hierarchy/elders.’

Fleur’s meticulous research, delicate handling and sensitivity of these issues led to her being approached by Longacre Press to write Sins of the Father: the Long Shadow of a Religious Cult — the true story about Neville Cooper who set up his own brand of Christian utopia on earth, a reclusive community on the West Coast of New Zealand — published in 2009. When Israel Cooper, Neville’s grandson, read I am not Esther he knew Fleur was the right person to tell his family’s story.

Fleur Beale is a former teacher who was inspired to write I am not Esther when a boy who attended the school where she taught wanted to become a doctor and was beaten and expelled from his family for going against their religious beliefs — the faith his family belonged to believed that education exposed children to the evil influences of the world and thus forbade schooling beyond what was necessary by law. The family declared him dead and there was no further contact between him and his family.
About the author

Fleur has published over 30 novels for young readers and has received many awards for her work including the 2007 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book with Slide the Corner and the Esther Glen Award for Juno of Taris in the 2009 LIANZA Children’s Book Awards. Her novel Fierce September won the 2011 NZ Post Children’s Young Adult Fiction award and the LIANZA Esther Glen Young Adult Award. This year, she has been awarded the Margaret Mahy medal. The award is presented annually to a person who has made a significant contribution to the broad field of children’s literature and literacy.

I am not Esther

Author: Fleur Beale

RRP: $19.99 - Random House

Released: 2 March 2012