Since Ma died, Orla has lived alone in a woodshed by the river. Her garden provides everything she needs. But when people beginto fall sick, Governor Atlas decrees that the plants are thecause and must be destroyed. Armed only with her mother's book ofremedies Orla sets out on a barge-boat to discover the truth andsave her garden ...

Set in a world where plants talk, friendship is hard-won and adventure is around the bend of every river ...

'I could almost feel the river mist settling in my hair' SARAH DRIVER

'Wild and imaginative storytelling' FLEUR HITCHCOCK

'A very special story' JULIA GREEN

Orla has lived on her own since Ma died, with only her beloved garden for company. When sickness comes and nature is blamed, Orla knows she must find a cure.

Armed with her mother's book of plants and remedies, she steals away on a river boat with two other stowaways, Idris and Ariana.

Soon the trio must navigate the rapids of the Inkwater to a poisonous place from which they may never return ...

• Fast-paced, thrilling storytelling, packed full of rustic adventure and peril
• A wild rapids-ride of a story, suffused at every turn with authentic details of the natural world
• Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2023
• A gorgeous gifty book for ages 9 and up: a flapped paperback with illustration by Marie-Alice Harel

'Fast-paced and highly original' GILL LEWIS

'Wild and bewitching' NICOLA PENFOLD

'A thrilling, beautiful, important book' NATASHA FARRANT