The Home Child: from the Forward Prize-winning author of Black Country

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Inspired by a true story, a beautiful portrait of a child far from home, by award-winning poet Liz Berry. Inspired by a true story, a beautiful novel-in-verse about a child far from home. From award-winning poet Liz Berry. 'A profound act of witness to a long injustice, and a beautifully crafted conjuring of a life lived as truly as possible' Guardian 'Book of the Day' 'Ground-breaking' Benjamin Zephaniah 'Exquisite' Hannah Lowe, author of The Kids 'Home's not a place, you must believe this, but one who names you and means beloved.' In 1908, Eliza Showell, twelve years old and newly orphaned, boards a ship that will carry her from the slums of the Black Country to rural Nova Scotia. She will never return to Britain or see her family again. She is a Home Child, one of thousands of British children sent to Canada to work as indentured farm labourers and domestic servants. In Nova Scotia, Eliza's world becomes a place where ordinary things are transfigured into treasures - a red ribbon, the feel of a foal's mane, the sound of her name on someone else's lips. With nothing to call her own, the wild beauty of Cape Breton is the only solace Eliza has - until another Home Child, a boy, comes to the farm and changes everything. Inspired by the true story of Liz Berry's great aunt, this spellbinding novel in verse is an exquisite portrait of a girl far from home. 'A haunting, deeply compelling narrative' Andrew McMillan, author of physical 'Only Liz Berry could write such raw and staggeringly beautiful poems' Fiona Benson, author of Vertigo & Ghost

Reviews

A story that is not only heartbreaking but also, essentially, true ... [The Home Child] is a profound act of witness to a long injustice, and a beautifully crafted conjuring of a life lived as truly as possible * Guardian, Book of the Day *
Liz Berry has given the world another ground-breaking collection of poems. These verses are sensitive and tender, yet the language is real and unflinching. * Benjamin Zephaniah *
An extraordinary work of imagination . . . Poetic virtuosity is combined with novelistic story-telling as we follow the unfolding fate of Eliza Showell . . . An exquisite book. * Hannah Lowe *
Only Liz Berry could write such raw and staggeringly beautiful poems * Fiona Benson *
'Magnificent . . . She takes us on a heartbreaking journey, and she persuades us to examine our own past, whoever we are.' * Ian McMillan *

Author Bio

Liz Berry was born in the Black Country and now lives in Birmingham. Her debut collection, Black Country, 'a sooty, soaring hymn to her native West Midlands' (Guardian), won a Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018. In The Home Child, a novel in verse, she reimagines the story of her great-aunt Eliza Showell, one of the many children forcibly emigrated to Canada as part of the British Child Migrant schemes.