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A01=Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
adventure
Author_Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
award winning books
book club
books by black authors
books for women
british colonial history
british colonialism
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Category=FXE
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coming of age
community
contemporary fiction
courage
debut fiction
displacement
eco fiction
ecology
elif shafak
emotional resilience
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exile
healing
heritage
historical fiction
identity
island of missing trees
kenya
legacy
literary fiction
literary gifts
maaza mengiste
new books
new fiction
summer reads
the imagined village
the shadow king
top holiday reads
twelve words for moss
war fiction
war history
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Product details

  • ISBN 9780241702000
  • Weight: 474g
  • Dimensions: 146 x 242mm
  • Publication Date: 18 Jun 2026
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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A moving tale of resistance and renewal, from the acclaimed author of Twelve Words for Moss

Two friends, Kenjo and Leah, swoosh through the lush forests at the edge of their village in Kenya. Imitating hornbills and lying on the mossy boulders that line the river, the young girls are watched over by a canopy of ancient trees, whose roots reach into the past, present and future.

But this glittering countryside is quickly becoming a haunting. As the armed rebellion against the British colonial regime intensifies, the forest is subsumed in a destructive conflict, disturbing the profound balance of life it nourishes and knowledge it preserves. Forced from their homes, the friends are separated by oceans and decades. Like the branches that once sheltered them, they may be twisted and buckled by violence, but they will also, somehow, endure.

This tale of courage, survival and restoration captures the healing – and destructive – power of time and unearths the hidden traces it leaves behind.

Elizabeth-Jane Burnett is a poet whose work explores environmental issues through creative writing. She is the author of The Grassling, an exploration of memory and natural history, as well as Twelve Words for Moss, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Wainwright Prize.

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