Astraea - K. M. Kruimink

'A novella of clarity and strange grace, etched with a fierce and patient skill.' -- Sebastian Barry. It's the early 19th century and a small sailing ship with a cargo of convict women and their children is crossing the ocean to a penal colony. Among those trying to survive is a 15-year-old girl. After caring for her only friend who has poisoned herself, she discovers a kind of liberation within the confines of the ship, as she moves into her unknowable, distant future. Ali Smith says: ' This powerful novella, historical and immediate, atmospheric, visceral, lyrical and frank, crosses the horizon between story, history and reality. Its passengers might be in the grip of some foul brutal institutional power but their life, their vitality and their survival form the beating heart of a unique read, the language of which forms a rough fabric so tangible you can feel it on your skin. The blood heat and the cool clean soul of this tale will stay with you long after you're back on dry land.'