Astraea
It's the early 19th century and a small sailing ship with a cargo of convict women and their children is crossing the ocean to a penal colony. Among those trying to survive is a 15-year-old girl. After caring for her only friend who has poisoned herself, she discovers a kind of liberation within the confines of the ship, as she moves into her unknowable, distant future.
Kate Kruimink is a writer from southern Lutruwita. Her first novel, A Treacherous Country, won the 2020 Australian/Vogel's Prize, was shortlisted for the 2021 Prime Minister's Award for Literature and longlisted for the 2021 Sir Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in the UK. She was one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists of 2021. Her second novel, Heartsease, will be released mid-2024 with Picador (Australia and NZ).