Where the River Runs Gold

Is this the future? They said it would happen, and it did. The bees all died. They’re extinct. Now the world is divided – and hungry. While the few live in luxury, poor children labour on farms, pollinating crops by hand so the nation can eat. Shifa and her brother, Themba, live in a ramshackle compound in Kairos City. It’s a horrid place. But their father, Nabil, still remembers Before. So he teaches his children to grow flowers in a secret place behind the train tracks. Then Shifa and Themba are sent to work on a cruel farm. It’s obvious Themba will die there. They must escape – with nothing to guide them but a map drawn by a rambling stranger, and their instincts, and their burning wish to survive…

• A tense yet hopeful fantasy set in a divided future

• By the author of Red Leaves and Tender Earth

• Sita Brahmachari is a Waterstone’s Prize winner

• Her books are wise, poignant and beautifully observed