Melbourne author Aisling Smith’s début begins with a question that snakes the whole way through her novel: ‘What has happened to Benjamin?’

The asker, at first, is his wife, Malti Fortune. It is 1987 and her husband, once doting and attentive, is now distant. Gone are their dreamy days bonding over their love of words (she’s a lawyer, he’s a linguist). Benjamin now frequently works late and is vacant when he does finally come home. They have just bought a house and are trying for children, but Malti can’t help but notice that this man, once so dear, feels more and more like a stranger. There are flashes of the old Benjamin and the comfort they once shared, but he is erratic and unreliable, despite his reassurances. All the while, Malti’s homeland of Fiji is experiencing political unrest, exacerbating her sense of dislocation and loneliness.

In two later timelines – 2000 and 2006 – the couple’s daughters, Ellery and Verona, are asking the question, or another version of it: who is Benjamin? Ellery, older by one year, is increasingly conscious of the disconnect between her father’s words and actions; Verona adores him, patiently awaiting his next visit. He has a revolving door of girlfriends and a troubling relationship with alcohol, but he’s the fun dad, isn’t he? The girls’ dichotomous relationships with their slippery, unpredictable father drive a wedge into their sibling bond.