Robert Drewe's memoir takes its title from an archipelago off the north west coast of Western Australia where, in the 1950s, the British conducted several nuclear tests. Described as a sequel to The Shark Net, this book follows several paths through Drewe's life one of which involves visiting Montebello with a group of scientists who have been reintroducing native species to the islands. Another path traces the tentative development of a relationship with a new lover. This strand takes in the importance of another WA island, Rottnest, in the coming of age stories of many locals. Drewe explores the potent stories of shark attacks on Perth beaches describing the strong sense of identity fellow swimmers feel with those who are victims and how they relive the shocking moments of the attack analysing the events searchiing for some meaning in their survival and the death of another. The casual approach of the British in the conduct and follow of the Montebello nuclear test is discussed and this feeds a sense of urgency when Drewe's daughter arrives in Japan just as the earthquake hits and the Fukushima plant begins its meltdown. More conventionally this memoir covers Drewe's experience as a young journalist, husband and father keen to step out into the wider world and embarking on the rocky process of writing his first novel. I always enjoy Drewe's writing, his ability to convey the detail and drama of suburban life with detached accuracy entertains and confronts. This apparently amorphous book gives us a slice or two of Drewe's life as well as a cross-section of the social world he inhabited as a became a writer.