In the first months of its release, Tenderfoot by Toni Jordan became a best seller.
Readings Books voted it one of the best fiction releases of 2025 and it’s shortlisted for the 2026 Indie Book Awards.
What makes Tenderfoot a winner? Perhaps its relatability.
Just as Trent Dalton’s main character is 12 year old Eli Bell coping with adversity in Boy Swallows Universe, Tenderfoot’s relatable protagonist Andie is 12 years old and coping with difficult parents in this heartfelt coming of age story.
Likeable main character
Likeable Andie is on the brink of adulthood and a pointy transition for any adolescent in the most stable of households let alone a toxic home with distant abandoning parents preoccupied with their own needs.
Wary of her unfathomable mother and her vicious tongue, Andie adores her Dad and the squad of racing greyhounds he trains and fusses over.
Her dream is to follow in his footsteps, but her existence is poised on shifting sand. The only constant is her parents’ obsession with gambling which governs their finances, social life and daily routines at the expense of their marriage.
Andie struggles to grasp the social and financial consequences for herself and her Mum.
Dogs a source of solace
Devotion to her father’s greyhounds, kept under the house, is a source of solace as is her poignant belief that her Dad will come back for his dogs and take her to live with him.
The setting is the Brisbane suburb of Morningside in the 1970s, now a leafy aspirational area but in those days, a working-class stronghold rife with crime and contradictions.
New residential developments stand proud in between pockets of residual farmland.
Jordan brings this era into sharp focus, illustrating the place and time with allusions to the prickles of bindiis, the sight of Christmas beetles, the gritty sleaze of racing tracks and the comfort of Countdown aired on ABC TV on Sunday nights.
Rapidly changing world for main character
There’s an intriguing duality. Morningside’s old-world rural, sleepy status is still in evidence, but it is developing into a multi-cultural, industrial domain.
Andie’s mother’s new partner is caring and considerate and has criminal connections.
Similarly, Andie’s vain and disappointed mother is nuanced, her regrettable traits balanced by worthy instincts. She’s flawed yet capable of unexpected kindness. Her unpredictability fans Andie’s insecurities and fragile self-esteem.
Apart from astute characterisation, Jordan adopts a canny neutrality in charting the autobiographically inspired story’s threads, which channels the seedy world of dog racing and the emotional neglect of Andie.
Tenderfoot author Toni Jordan. IMAGE supplied by Hatchette Australia
In lesser hands, these elements could be weighty, unbearable to witness. Jordan’s quiet poetic tone bypasses maudlin sentiment. Instead, the reader is buoyed by Andie’s remarkable resilience.
Tenderfoot brims with telling insight and compassion. Given the book’s enthusiastic reception, it seems destined to become a classic.
Perhaps the ultimate test of the novel’s worth is whether or not it merits a second reading and this reviewer is inclined to do just that.
Tenderfoot is published by Hatchette, Australia and retails for $32.99.
