Blood

Blood is a novel by the Australian writer Tony Birch, published in 2011. It is a short book about a brother and sister who are left to bring each other up.

From the moment Jesse sees his sister Rachel wrapped in a blanket at the hospital, he understands that looking after her will be his job. Their mother is always on the move and always bringing trouble home with her, and the two children are moved from place to place as her circumstances change, with Jesse holding the pair of them together.

The family's luck appears to change when the mother takes up with a man named Ray Crow, who has charm and charisma to spare. Jesse can see what is underneath it, and the novel follows what it costs him to be the person who notices, and what the two children do when the arrangement turns out not to be a rescue. Birch keeps the story with the children, and the adults are seen mostly through what they do to the two of them.