The Pages of the Sea

On a Caribbean island in the mid-1960s, a young girl copes with the heavy cost of migration.

When her mother sails to England to find work, Wheeler and her older sisters are left behind on their Caribbean island with their aunts and cousins. Though her sisters look after her with varying levels of patience, Wheeler couldn't feel more alone. She does her best to navigate uncertain rules about where and with whom she spends her time, but the tensions in the family home only seem to grow more opaque--and more threatening. Everyone tells her that soon her mother will send for her, but how long will it be, and why does it feel like there's no one looking out for her at all?

A story of sisterhood, secrets, and the sacrifices of love, The Pages of the Sea is a tenderly lyrical portrait of innocence and a heartbreaking evocation of what it's like to be a child left behind.