The Home Child

Description

Inspired by a true story, a beautiful novel-in-verse about a child far from home. From award-winning poet Liz Berry.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR POETRY 2024*

‘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.

‘Vivid, compassionate and makes Eliza Showell’s voice heard at last‘ Financial Times *Best Poetry Books of summer 2023*

‘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 & GhostOne of the outstanding books of this year… Although this is a historical tale its resonance is timeless—Sunday Times

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

Berry’s novel in verse is based on an aunt she never met… It’s vivid, compassionate and, a century after her forced migration, makes little Eliza Showell’s voice heard at last—Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

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

One of the most anticipated second collections of the decade… Enchanting… Berry combines the historical and the personal, the local and international, weaving them into a story that has its own accumulating emotional force—Irish Times

A triumph. A novel in verse, an elegy, a profound act of witness . . . Eliza is brought to such tangible and complex life I feel as though I’ve met her—Luke Kennard

‘One of my favourite books of all time. Every collection by Liz Berry is a treasure, but this one struck even deeper. It has universal reach to the ongoing exploitation of earth’s poor.—Pascale Petit

A haunting, deeply compelling narrative, that holds the reader tight to the animal anchor of the natural world, and speaks in the unique idiolect of its own genealogy—Andrew McMillan, author of PHYSICAL

The Home Child is so beautiful . . . [Liz] honours Home Children & with a eerie magic ventriloquises her ancestor Eliza Showell—Amy Key

‘A remarkable collection . . . A thought-provoking weave of fact and imagination . . . It describes in her own words how her life is transformed, and in doing so, transforms ours’—John Glenday

Deeply moving. A graceful, delicate book, stunning in its emotional depth… I know I’ll return to it many times in the future—Megan Hunter, author of THE END WE START FROM

There is something of Hardy’s heartbreak note to these poems . . . The Home Child is both blues and rhapsody; Liz Berry’s musicality and gift for the telling image matched by her sensitivity to and love for her subject.—Declan Ryan

Deeply moving, unforgettable.—Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

‘Liz Berry’s poetry is spell-work . . . Her voice carves creatures out of words, and sets them dancing.’—Jen Campbell

Liz Berry … sings of love, loss, grief, work, wonder, hope. To say I love this, the quiet power of it, would understate—Jackie Morris, author of The Unwinding

‘Liz Berry’s poems are captivating and charged with her characteristically rich and sensuous Black Country language. The Home Child brings to light the devastating history of forced child migration in the service of Empire and is a deeply moving tribute to the author’s great aunt. This is a book that should be on the curriculum’—Naush Sabah

Liz Berry achieves a fusion of poetry and fiction as gripping as any thriller… Inspired by the true story of her great aunt…this compelling novel in verse is a moving portrait of a girl who will never see her family again—Daily MailLiz Berry is an award-winning poet and author of the critically acclaimed collections Black Country (Chatto, 2014); The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018); The Dereliction (Hercules Editions, 2021) a collaboration with artist Tom Hicks; and most recently The Home Child (Chatto, 2023), a novel in verse. Liz’s work, described as “a sooty soaring hymn to her native West Midlands” (Guardian), celebrates the landscape, history and dialect of the region. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and Forward Prizes. Her poem ‘Homing’, a love poem for the language of the Black Country, is part of the GCSE English syllabus. Liz is a patron of Writing West Midlands and lives in Birmingham with her family.GB

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