In 1834, on the Caribbean island of Barbados, a law has decreed that all slaves are now free. But for Rachel her true freedom is not as simple as that - five of Rachel’s surviving children were all brutally ripped away from her and all sold as slaves themselves. Freedom for Rachel means finding her children and she knows she will go to the ends of the earth to be reunited with them once again.
Rachel’s journey is a tireless, desperate and dangerous one taking her from the cane fields of Barbados through the forests of British Guiana and across the sea to
Trinidad. Nothing will make her give up on her search for them and for her true freedom.

The story tells us of the brutality in the plantations, the cruelty of the white men who owned them and about the horrors of being a slave: the pain, fear, loss and the destruction and dislocation of families and loved ones. But, ultimately, more than anything else it is a story about bravery, courage, strength, survival, hope and the power of a mother’s love.

This is a wonderful debut novel inspired by the true stories of the Caribbean women who went looking for their children when slavery was abolished. It’s beautifully and powerfully told and I’m sure it will be destined to find a place in your heart as it did in mine.