`Intelligent, beautifully written` The Times`Historical fiction fans, meet your new favourite author` Stella Magazine`Beautifully written, immaculately researched and powerfully imagined` Lancashire Evening PostOceania 1879. A family of settlers from New Zealand are the sole inhabitants of a remote volcanic island.For two years they have struggled with the harsh reality of trying to make this unforgiving place a paradise they can call their own. At last, a ship appears. The six Pacific Islanders on board have travelled eight hundred miles across the ocean in search of work and new horizons. Hopes are high for all, until a vulnerable boy vanishes. In their search for the lost child, settlers and newcomers together uncover far more than they were looking for. The island`s secrets force them all to question their deepest convictions.An intimate, intense and beautifully realised novel of possession, power and the liberating loss of innocence, this will delight fans of MISTER PIP and THE POISONWOOD BIBLE.