I'm Not Really Here

A wonderful coming-of-age queer romance from the multi award-winning author of The Boy from the Mish. Jonah is the new kid in a country town. When he joins the local soccer team to be closer to his crush, Harley, it feels like a fresh start - but he still has to navigate new friendships, an unresolved past, and the same body image issues he's always had.

"A moving coming-of-age story with so much heart. For readers who enjoyed Heartstopper." --BOOKS & PUBLISHING

Footsteps approach behind me. I turn and see an Aboriginal boy arriving at the doorway. He's tall, taller than me. He's got curly hair. His body is fit. His chest is chiseled and bare and he's wearing only football shorts.

When 17-year-old Jonah arrives in a new town - Patience - with his dad and younger brothers, it feels like a foreign place. A new town means he needs to make new friends - which isn't always easy. Especially when he's wrestling with his body image, and his memories of his mother.

When he joins the local soccer team so he can spend more time with his new crush, Harley, he feels like he's moving closer to something good. But even though he knows what he wants, it doesn't mean he's ready.

Emotionally compelling, honest and warm, I'm Not Really Here is a beautiful novel about navigating family and friendships, and finding a way through grief towards love, from an internationally acclaimed bestselling Indigenous author.

Praise for Gary Lonesborough

"What a revelation this young writer is. He is doing something no other male First Nations novelist has attempted: the YA Black queer genre that is a glimpse into another world view, at once confronting yet heartwarming." --Australian Book Review on We Didn't Think It Through

"A lightning bolt to the soul. The Boy from the Mish announces a bold, necessary new talent." --Will Kostakis

Author: Gary Lonesborough
Publisher: A&u Children's
Published: 03/10/2026
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 7.81h x 5.05w x 1.27d
ISBN: 9781761180767
Audience: Young Adult

About the Author
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Gary was always writing as a child and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience in youth work, Aboriginal health, child protection, the disability sector (including experience working in the youth justice system) and the film industry, including working on the feature film adaptation of Jasper Jones. His debut YA novel, The Boy from the Mish, won the Booktopia FAB Debut Book Awards and the Ena Noel Award and was shortlisted for the CBCA Awards, the QLD Literary Awards, The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the Indie Book Awards, the Adelaide Festival Awards, the NSW Premier's Awards and was selected as a White Raven. It was published in the U.S. in 2022 under the title Ready When You Are. His second novel, We Didn't Think It Through, was published in 2023 and won the Marion ACT Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards and the Readings Young Adult Prize and was a CBCA Notable Book.