out 1 November with Espresso (Spineless Wonders)

Eggshell paints the foibles of youth and anguishes of facing an adult future, ‘without an extra million dollars in [a] bank account’ with a lightness of touch.

Set in 2000s Adelaide, Eggshell tells the story of Kira, a sarcastic, cynical teenager living in a council flat with her Cantonese grandmother (Apoh) and her rebellious older cousin, Jake. This novella starts and ends with Kira’s experience of Year 12 where she is caught between two worlds: being a subservient Cantonese granddaughter and a Big Brother-watching, boy-crazy Australian schoolgirl. 

Eggshell is a young-adult novella dealing with themes of identity, racism, romance, sexuality and adolescence.

Available to pre-order at Spineless Wonders and all major retailers. Cover design by Bettina Kaiser.

Praise for Eggshell

‘Eggshell really gets into the skin of a teenager grappling with adult responsibilities and caring duties. Kira’s world is completely real, her voice imbued with the urgency of a young adult trying to make sense of both her rich interior world and the often hostile exterior one. Olivia De Zilva’s voice explodes with a radiant energy, a raw and potent emotional power’ –
Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem, Laurinda and One Hundred Days

‘De Zilva has established a unique and much-needed voice in Australian literature. Her writing is exquisitely observant, brutally truthful and genuinely hilarious. She effortlessly balances mordant humour with painful truthbombs about Australia’s multicultural illusion of the Noughties. Her unflinching depiction of the cumulative losses and grief of cancer broke my heart‘ –
Leanne Hall, author of The Gaps and Iris and the Tiger

‘I laughed out loud at the biting humour, I wept for these flesh and bone characters and I nodded along to our shared Asian experience until my neck hurt. Olivia is an exciting new powerhouse and I will be following her career keenly’ –
Shirley Marr, author of A Glasshouse of Stars and All Four Quarters of the Moon

‘Delightfully raucous and rich in detail, Eggshell is packed with all the cringe, colour, heartache and hilarity of high school. De Zilva has created a cast of memorable characters that you’ll fall in love with, groan at, despair for and ultimately cheer on with both fists raised‘ –
Erin Gough, author of Amelia Westlake Was Never Here and The Flywheel

‘Eggshell lingers because it resists simplification; it honours the layered experiences of adolescent diaspora with honesty and care, marking De Zilva as a striking new voice for readers of Alice Pung and Clare Atkin’ – Emma Pei Yin, Books+Publishing

‘Eggshell offers a distinctly Australian voice through the vivid character of Kira and a world that feels instantly recognisable to young readers’ –
Books+Publishing Junior Book Club

‘De Zilva writes with sarcastic wit, emotive punch and refreshing directness, holding a mirror to kids from impoverished backgrounds as well as migrant ones, and tackling themes of identity, love and death along the way.‘ –
The Sydney Morning Herald

‘The work of a talented writer worthy of wider attention‘ –
The Age