From Seven to the Sea

Explores the emotions of childhood and an almost limitless capacity for imagination, invention, and fearlessness as it charts the survival of seven-year-old Esther as she negotiates her mother and stepfather's dysfunction, and a school environment that exposes her to further prejudice and injustice. It is a window onto the world of a child who rejects convention and expectation, and who embarks on an expedition into liberty and freethinking; and who, each day, in place of school, sets out to sea.

With this tender story of trauma in a child's life, brimming with sympathy and insight, Jayne Joso hymns the compassion of strangers and the consolations of the sea.

– Horatio Clare

A beautifully written and masterfully calibrated portrayal of the search for sanctuary and enchantment within a childhood under siege.

– Chloe Aridjis