Precious matter - Belinda Roberts

Roberts' adult debut achieves the perfect balance of sweet and bitter. When the world is forced to look to the riches of space for human survival, Agatha Whisper finds her family caught between the traditions of rural life, and a technological advance that will once again change the world - and her son - forever. Her family's future is at stake, but the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.

Agatha Whisper knows her young son is different. Wilfie struggles in class, yet his knowledge of space is far beyond his years. But it goes deeper than that - and it is only when the world is forced to look to the riches of space for human survival that she realises how deep.

The world needs a visionary who believes the skies above will be his one day. No one cares if that visionary is a small boy.

Except Agatha. She has thrived for years alone with her family in the moorland that she calls home - finding friends in the creatures and lessons in the natural world - and now faces losing everything when her son is swept up in a dubious scheme hatched by a major corporation. Where Wilfie sees adventure, Agatha sees only danger.

But will the remoteness of the Whisper's beloved moorland home, Grey Cottage, that binds her family tightly together be enough to keep Wilfie safe? And will Agatha be able to safeguard her own dark secrets while protecting her son?

Poetic, tender and full of hope, Precious Matter is a heart-rending but ultimately uplifting story that reveals how, even in our bleakest moments, our capacity for love endures.