Hannah Barrie

Sylvia has never been so far away. Her mother has brought her to this village, this place of silence and dark, endless forest, and she yearns for the city, the bright lights, her friends, even a phone signal.

Late one night she hears the music, a weird jagged spiralling sound. It is played by Gabriel, a troubled, beautiful boy.

Gabriel uses the strangest of flutes, a hollow bone. Play it well enough, he says, and you cross the borders between the living and the dead.

Sylvia knows she'll follow him into the depths of the forest. But will they ever find their way out again?

Louise has travelled with her father to the island of Lindisfarne every year ever since she can remember - it's the place Louise's mother loved best of all. 

The arrival of Hassan from war-torn Syria changes everything. Louise is restless and yearning for independence; meanwhile, the fiercely free and self-reliant Hassan seems to know the island from long ago as if it were his home from birth. Hassan is an acrobat, maybe a sorcerer, possibly a source of great danger. The wild boys who call the island their home want to cast him out.

The forces of love, death and hope move Louise and Hassan together. Lindisfarne will change their lives forever.