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Set in the Caribbean around the time of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1834, Eleanor Shearer’s dynamic debut follows Rachel, a “freed” slave on a Barbados plantation. But Rachel is not truly free—her master says she is now one of his apprentices and isn’t allowed to leave. So she runs, fleeing the threat of a life of indentured servitude in search of the five children who were taken from her and sold. As Rachel undertakes a brutal journey from Barbados into the forests of British Guiana and across the sea to Trinidad, River Sing Me Home weaves together a historical accounting of the perils of British emancipation with a moving interrogation of what freedom really means. —Megan McCluskey
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