The Spill

Author(s): Imbi Neeme

Location(s): Western Australia

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): 1980s till contemporary

A car slides out of control and into a near miss. Its occupants emerge without serious physical injuries, but the incident’s aftermath pulls a family apart. Each chapter reveals part of the puzzle, building a cleverly crafted image of the complex dynamics that make up a family. Like a jumbled jigsaw, the pieces sometimes need to be held up one way, then another, then turned around until they can click into place. And it’s impossible to see the big picture until the last piece has found its home. Instead of a straightforward chronology from a single point of view, the narrative follows two sisters as they reflect on moments that drove their lives onto new paths – or blocked off old ones – often with very different interpretations of the same events.

The Spill is a stirring tale of memory and misconception, weakness and redemption, resentment, thwarted good intention, and acts of profound love. It left me pondering the secrets that might bolster relationships, or undermine them. The secrets born from kindness and those kept out of fear. The ones we don’t know how to tell, and those that we should never have told.

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