River Sing Me Home: A soaring, heartstopping story of courage, survival and a mother's journey to find her children

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A gripping, soaring and redemptive novel of a mother's determination to put the fragments of her family back together.

'A strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love' Jeanette Winterson

'Magnificent and epic. A story about love and the power it brings us' ' Frank Cottrell-Boyce

'A powerful story, beautifully told' Jessica Moor

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We whisper the names of the ones we love like the words of a song. That was the taste of freedom to us, those names on our lips.

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy.

These are the names of her children. The five who were sold to other plantations. The faces who live in Rachel's mind.

It's 1834, and the law says her people are now free. But for Rachel, freedom lies in finding her children.

With fear snapping at her heels, Rachel keeps moving. From sunrise to sunset, through the cane fields of Barbados to the forests of British Guiana and on to Trinidad, up the dangerous river and out to the open sea.

Only once she finds the truth can she rest. Only then can she finally find home.

Inspired by the women who, in the aftermath of slavery, went in search of their lost children.

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'An immersive debut. A tender exploration of one woman's courage in the face of unbelievable cruelty. The heart of the novel lies in its celebration of motherhood and female resilience' Observer

'The compelling premise of a mother in search of her children powers a moving and dynamic novel' Guardian

'A powerful, gripping novel about the strength of a mother's love' Red - The best books of January 2023

'Full of love and compassion, this will be everywhere next year' Stylist - Pick of the big fiction books for 2023

'Powerful, moving and lyrical' Woman & Home

'A glorious and compelling story' Prima

'Eleanor Shearer is a remarkable writer' Natasha Lester

'It slices you open, lays out your parts, reassembles them and knits you back up again. A powerful account of love, loss, defiance... Breathtaking' Chikodili Emelumadu

'Beautiful... A masterclass in how to speak of unspeakable things' Meg Clothier

'An extraordinary odyssey of pain, love, and homecoming' Kate Quinn

'A stunning debut with real characters that lock themselves in your heart' Sadeqa Johnson

'A searing debut. Heartbreaking, hopeful, and unforgettable' Kristin Harmel

'An extraordinary

Reviews

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so assured and so powerful you can't believe it's a debut novel. RIVER SING ME HOME is just such a book . . . Eleanor Shearer is a remarkable writer and she brings this story of a mother's courage to the page with compassion, tenderness and pitch-perfect prose -- Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Riviera House
An extraordinary odyssey of pain, love, and homecoming . . . RIVER SING ME HOME is a haunting and powerful debut -- Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye
A strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love -- Jeanette Winterson
Epic and lyrical, a story about love and the power it brings us -- Frank Cottrell-Boyce
A searing debut full of love, loss, and the shadows of the past . . . Heartbreaking, hopeful, and unforgettable. Both a powerful ode to the endless depths of a mother's love and an important meditation on what freedom really means, this is the kind of book that will stay with readers for years to come -- Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author
An extraordinary and gripping debut. Rachel's love for her children resonates through each page as she fights for her freedom and theirs. A must-read! -- Chanel Cleeton
A powerful story, beautifully told. Shearer skilfully depicts the cruelty of the British slave trade, contrasted with one mother's indomitable love for her children, and her burning will to live. An empathic, elegantly rendered and deeply humane novel -- Jessica Moor
A powerful novel that explores how freedom and family are truly defined -- Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Personal Librarian
RIVER SING ME HOME is a masterclass in how to speak of unspeakable things. A beautiful read -- Meg Clothier
RIVER SING ME HOME slices you open . . . and knits you back up again. A powerful account of love, loss, defiance and the lengths to which a mother will go in order to make herself and her family whole again. Breathtaking -- Chikodili Emelumadu
Lyrical, heartbreaking, thought-provoking . . . A book about love, motherhood and survival that will stay with you long after you've finished it' -- Costanza Casati
I absolutely loved this book and Eleanor Shearer's lyrical prose kept me gripped as the story moved from Barbados to Demerara and Trinidad . . . a beautifully written debut -- Stacey Thomas
Propulsive . . . This compelling premise of a mother in search of her children powers a moving and dynamic novel. The pacing is swift, and Shearer writes in clear, energetic prose. There is an accessibility to the language that is refreshing; it buoys the narrative, giving us intimate access to a complex period in history * Guardian *
An immersive debut . . . the heart of the novel lies in its celebration of motherhood and female resilience. A tender exploration of one woman's courage in the face of unbelievable cruelty * Observer *
The beautifully written depiction of a mother longing for her children makes this transcendent * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
Early readers of RIVER SING ME HOME are evangelical about this story . . . Full of love and compassion, this will be everywhere next year * Stylist *
A powerful, gripping and poetic novel about the strength of a mother's love -- Sarra Manning * Red *
Such a glorious and compelling story * Prima *
A cracking debut * Belfast Telegraph *
Hugely profound, hopeful and emotive this is written in lyrical prose that demonstrates Shearer's mastery of language * Glamour *
Action-packed, emotionally demanding, richly described, the novel paints an extraordinary portrait of motherly love and hope . . . a thoroughly compelling read * Daily Mail *
An intense and absorbing debut * The Times *
River Sing Me Home is a fine testament to the women who inspired this debut * The Sunday Times *
Lyrical, heart-wrenching and so well crafted -- Goodreads Reviewer
A triumph of tragedy and hope -- Goodreads Reviewer
An extraordinary tale of fearlessness, passion, motherly love and hope -- NetGalley Reviewer
This debut novel does exactly what I want historic fiction to do - teach me something while telling me a good story -- Goodreads Reviewer
The most moving, beautiful, heart-breaking yet hopeful book I've read this year. -- Goodreads Reviewer
A novel which explored, with courage, care and capability, the illusory nature of freedom at a critical point in West Indian history. I was riveted by Rachel's story and it is a testament to Eleanor's craft that I felt every fraught element of Rachel's journey to finding her children right along with her. Like the River of its title, this novel sings . . . a beautiful debut -- Cherie Jones, Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

Author Bio

Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. For her Master's degree in Politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations. Her fieldwork was in St. Lucia and Barbados. The inspiration for River Sing Me Home came to Eleanor after she discovered a tiny footnote in an exhibition she was attending about the Windrush. Mothers in slavery in the British colonies lived in constant fear of their children being sold. When the Slavery Abolition Act came in in the 1830s, it didn't mean freedom, so many mothers went in search of their lost children.