The Nardi Puzzle by Gabriella Page
(Wombat Books)
With shades of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but set in an escape room scenario, Gabriella Page’s The Nardia Puzzle is a middle-fiction page-turner.
Article by Gabriella Page for PaperbarkWords blog: On doing the things that scare you
I was 21 when I arrived in Italy.
I had no family in the country, very few contacts, and barely enough money to buy myself a flight back to Australia if things went wrong. Worse still, my plans were tenuous. I’d found myself a host family through a slightly ramshackle Au Pair website; they agreed to let me stay with them in exchange for teaching their three-year-old twins English. I’d also got in touch with a singing teacher in Venice. The hope was that said teacher, who I’d never worked with or even met, would prepare me to audition for master’s programmes in classical singing in Italy.
In short, I was stepping into the vast unknown—and I didn’t even speak Italian yet.
Had I gone mad? It was a question I asked myself more often than I admitted to anyone who knew me. The truth was, I was terror-stricken—so much so that, in the month leading up to my departure, I could hardly breathe. My family doctor at the time mistook my anxiety for asthma and prescribed an inhaler. I used it once before cottoning on to where the real problem lay.
Several years on, and I’m fortunate enough to say that the things I was worried about turned out alright. The family was wonderful, I learnt Italian, and I earned my master’s degree (after a year-and-a-half-long red herring in Germany). Looking back, I’m glad I took the risk. Since moving abroad, I’ve achieved the things I most wanted in life. It’s taken a long time, and I felt tragically behind my peers for years, but I’m now a working classical singer with my very first book on the way.
None of this would have been possible if I’d listened to the niggling voice of fear in my head. You’re probably familiar with it: it’s the one that loves to tell you that you’ll never be good enough, or that you’re wasting your time. It takes a lot of discipline to shut that voice out, especially when the rejections flood in and all evidence points to you being a failure. I’d be lying if I told you I never wanted to give up and head down a simpler path. I very nearly did.
But I will always advocate for doing the things that scare you—as long as they aren’t dangerous and don’t cause harm to anyone else, of course! This is one of the themes I explore in my upcoming middle grade novel, The Nardi Puzzle. The main character, Sebastian Walker, is plagued by the fears and doubts so many of us have. And when he is given the opportunity to do something amazing—to head to Italy to meet his idol, the legendary game-maker Elisabetta Nardi—he almost backs out.
Almost.
In spite of his panic, Sebastian finds the strength to push through. And it is this act of courage that propels him into adventure.
The Nardi Puzzle at Wombat Books
Gabriella Page is a Perth children’s author and opera chorister based in Italy. Her first novel, The Nardi Puzzle, was released by Wombat Books in August 2026.
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