Behind the Sea - Anne Jordan

Jimmy, a twenty-year-old adult with a learning difficulty, is on the way to the outside toilet when an explosion occurs. His grandma whom he lives with is killed but he survives and is taken to hospital. He has no understanding about death so has no idea where his grandma has gone. Two people he knows well try to explain that she has died but the words they use confuse him. He is left with the strange idea his grandma is behind the sea and he must find her. But he doesn't know what the sea looks like and where it is. Where does he begin? After a number of failed attempts to find the sea Jimmy ends up in Dover. This is where he begins to learn about death by witnessing it for the first time. Finally he becomes involved in the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches of Dunkirk and realises for the first time that his Grandma is dead. It is on the bloody shores of France that Jimmy, heroically, finally sees what is behind the sea.