Lotti Coates lives in the shadow of a genius: her father George is a brilliant and celebrated Australian painter.

When Lotti meets the outcast waif Kyla at a suburban Canberra school, two worlds are set to collide. Slowly Kyla is drawn into the orbit of the Coates family. Or is it the other way around?

As Lotti and Kyla navigate their way towards adulthood, dark secrets start to unravel, with devastating consequences ...

We Were Never Friends is a story of friendship, the pursuit of a creative life and the legacies we leave behind.

Praise for We Were Never Friends by Margaret Bearman

'This intelligent, subtle novel is a complex study of family dynamics, class divides, adolescent pecking orders, and the murky moral landscapes of artistic practice and inspiration.' —Kerryn Goldsworthy, The Sydney Morning Herald

'Margaret Bearman's intimate, unsettling novel of family dysfunction perfectly captures the ambivalent passions of girlhood while offering an incisive critique of the cult of artistic genius. Sharp and subtle at the same time, refusing any easy certainties, We Were Never Friends is a haunting portrait of the human capacity for cruelty and love in equal measure.' —Kirsten Tranter, bestselling author of The Legacy

'A compelling and authentic journey into the heart of an Australian family. What is art? What's true courage? I could not put it down.' —Melissa Ashley, bestselling author of The Birdman's Wife