A mother's desperate search to find her stolen children and her freedom takes her across the Caribbean in a gripping, moving, redemptive and unforgettable story of survival and hope.

We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on our lips.

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy.

These are the names of her children. The five who survived, only to be sold to other plantations. The faces Rachel cannot forget.

It's 1834, and the law says her people are now free. But for Rachel freedom means finding her children, even if the truth is more than she can bear.

With fear snapping at her heels, Rachel keeps moving. From sunrise to sunset, through the cane fields of Barbados to the forests of British Guiana and on to Trinidad, to the dangerous river and the open sea.

Only once she knows their stories can she rest. Only then can she finally find home.

'Eleanor Shearer is a remarkable writer and brings this story of a mother's courage to the page with compassion, tenderness and pitch-perfect prose' Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author

'Shearer skilfully depicts the cruelty of the British slave trade, contrasted with one mother's indomitable love for her children, and her burning will to live. An empathic, elegantly rendered and deeply humane novel' Jessica Moor

'Eleanor Shearer bursts onto the literary scene with...an extraordinary odyssey of pain, love, and homecoming... A haunting and powerful debut' Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author

'A searing debut full of love, loss, and the shadows of the past... Heartbreaking, hopeful, and unforgettable. Both a powerful ode to the endless depths of a mother's love and an important meditation on what freedom really means, this is the kind of book that will stay with readers for years to come' Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author

'An extraordinary and gripping debut. Rachel's love for her children resonates through each page as she fights for her freedom and theirs. A must-read!' Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author

'A powerful novel that explores how freedom and family are truly defined' Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling co-author