The Pages of the Sea

After her mother sails to England to find work, Wheeler is left with her two older sisters, three cousins and two aunts. She couldn’t feel more alone. She longs for her mother to send for her as promised. Everyone tells her to just wait. But for how long? She feels increasingly under threat and begins to believe there is no-one looking out for her. And perhaps there isn’t. Set during the mid-1960s on a Caribbean island, the shadow of migration and abandonment hangs heavily over Wheeler and her family. A story of sisterhood, family secrets, and the sacrifices of love, no novel comes as close to this heartbreaking evocation of what it’s like to a child left behind.

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What can I say except I think this is a great novel? The story breaks your heart and, at the very same time, the writing heals it. Anne Hawk’s vision is miraculously, tenderly lucid. Here is the other side of emigration — the story of one of those left behind representing the stories of so many. I can’t think of a better depiction of the confusions and insights of girlhood.

Toby Litt