Lawrence is intellectually disabled, but the reader’s encounters with him as a child are engaging and satisfying. Lawrence is especially sensitive. To him, everyone has a unique scent, including Father Mulquiny, ‘who smelt like a used chalice’; and the doctor, who reeks like a ‘dunny’. Lawrence also responds sensitively to objects – in class, he chooses a tennis ball instead of a Frisbee or a cricket bat because of its ‘fuzzy yellow jacket’.

Stephen wants to fit in with his peers and to impress the adults he admires. He tries not to act like a ‘sook’ in front of his father. As a youth, his fears often spur him to acts of daring. He dives from a great height to impress Katie, who will become an enduring presence in his life. Stephen also grapples with the idea of God from a young age.

Early in the novel, when the family is struck by tragedy, Stephen and Lawrence are sent to live with their godparents. Their lives turn from bad to worse, and Stephen struggles not only with what goes on under their new roof, but also with having to live in the world while caring for his brother. Lawrence’s struggle is to gain some independence from the people who sustain him.

Growing up in an army barracks is significant for the characters. Life there teaches Stephen about loyalty, another principle he struggles with as he grows up. Because the barracks is a contained place, with its own rules, it acts as a site of memories for the rest of the novel, and as a standard against which the twins measure other phases of their lives. In the barracks, the reader is introduced to a gamut of damaged men and notes their different manifestations of trauma. Some men, like the boys’ father, become harmlessly drunk and emotional; others fly completely off the handle and become violent. Their disparate behaviour contrasts later with the two young adults’ own personal trauma and with their ways of dealing with it.

Faces in the Clouds is essentially a coming-of-age novel with two strong and memorable characters, each given equal space. Its first half, dealing with the twins’ childhood, is gripping; rich in imagery and sensitive description. Later chapters dealing with their adulthood are sparser and more hurried.

Nable examines issues of masculinity and teenage sexuality with empathy. Lawrence’s case is curious: how does someone who is intellectually challenged meet someone? How does he discover sexuality? Lawrence learns from an older friend, Henry, who collects trolleys at a supermarket. Much pathos is present in the boys’ friendship, and in the mischief they get up to.

Stephen’s sexuality is complicated due to negative and damaging experiences at his godparents’ house, and also due to his relationship with God. His discoveries are hard-won and compelling. Because Stephen and Lawrence’s childhoods are rendered maturely and compassionately, the reader cares about how the characters ‘turn out’. Stephen has carried a heavy burden of responsibility from a young age and, because he has been damaged in other ways (sexual abuse), seems paradoxically over- and underdeveloped. The reader understands Stephen’s later choices in career, friendship, and romance; he is both escaping and reclaiming his youth.

Nable’s first novel, We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2009), won praise for its intimate descriptions of place and character. This second novel has echoes of Tim Winton’s Breath (Stephen is a surfer) and of the coming-of-age narratives of Peter Goldsworthy, but without the bite. Nable’s explorations of masculinity are gentler than Christos Tsiolkas’s, more compassionate and mature than Brendan Cowell’s in How It Feels (2011). In its explorations of the effect of damaging incidents from the past on the personality of its adult characters, Faces in the Clouds also reminded me of Jacqueline Lunn’s recent novel Under the Influence (2011).

Both boys must deal with death and abuse, and with Lawrence’s difficulties in the world. One of the saddest elements of the novel is Lawrence’s insistence, since adolescence, that sometimes he just feels ‘bad’. The reader appreciates what Lawrence means.

Nable has created memorable characters in this dual-Bildungsroman. The novel’s earlier chapters are the most striking ones. The ending, traditionally neat, reinforces a cycle of beginnings and endings. Due to the accomplished rendering of Lawrence and Stephen, it doesn’t fail to move.