This heartwrenching debut is a beauty. We asked a selection of our book clubbers to join Rachel's tearjerking quest to find her children as slavery is abolished in this beautiful book about fractured families, freedom, loss and love.

When Jeanette Winterson reads it and shares: "A strong and beautiful novel that stares into the face of brutality and the heart of love", you take note!

Our editorial expert Joanne Owen commented: "Set in the Caribbean after the Slavery Abolition Act, this lucid, luminous debut follows a mother’s odyssey to find the five children who were taken from her during slavery."

The story begins in the Providence Plantation in Barbados 1834 and the law says her people are free. The end of slavery is here and Rachel is desperate to find her children. Except it's not quite over; slavery continues to cast its shadow long after it's formal end.

No longer slaves, they are now apprentices. No one can leave. Freedom is just another name for the life they have always lived. So Rachel runs.

We hear Rachel's unique voice spoken in her dialect throughout River Sing Me Home and as she shares her story with us, we are transported to Barbados. We wonder at her strength. We mourn her 11 "pickney" with her. Every loss, every life, every hole in her heart as her children were wrenched away from her. We hope for her, we stand strong with her as she travels across the Caribbean to find her five children who were sold. These are the stories of Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. And above all this is the story of Rachel and the faces she cannot forget, the lost children who haunt her every waking hour. "Freedom mean something different to me. The search, that is the freedom". Consumed with the extraordinary lengths to which a mother will go to find her children, this is a remarkable debut.

Thanks to our reading groups who read and shared their comments on this beautiful novel. Here are a selection:

"A gripping and tragic tale contrasting the evil and cruelty of slavery with hope and love." Barbara Allebone

"Rachel’s quest to escape from enslavement, search for her stolen children is at times harrowing, at times joyful and often fraught with danger. Her story will open your heart." Maggie Rogers

"I found the story gripping and found it hard to put the book down as I accompanied Rachel in her search for her children." Oli

"A real page turner, a tale of the strength of maternal love." Angie

"I enjoyed the book, it was an easy read, sparked my interest in following her journey through Barbados, British Guyana and Trinidad and it prompted me to research the process of emancipation which was clearly not real freedom at all but totally slewed to protect the interests of the white plantation owners." Sandra Furmston

See all of their reviews here.

We encourage you to consider Eleanor Shearer's River Sing Me Home for your next book club read, and if you do, here are some reading groups questions to help faciliate your discussions.

1. "Rachel did not mind that she lacked Hope's hard outlines and clear sense of self. That was how she had chosen to survive - by letting little pieces of herself fall away without resistance." What do you make of Rachel's character, and of her attitude to survival? Do you think her attitude changes during the novel?

2. What does Rachel's journey say about motherhood? What do you think Rachel learns about being a mother over the course of the novel?

3. Each of Rachel's children chooses a different path out of slavery. Are they all in some sense free? Are some paths better ones than others?

4. Lots of characters in this novel get the chance to tell small fragments of their stories. Why might this telling be important? What role do these stories play in Rachel's journey? Are they able to teach her something about herself?

5. Rachel doesn't mention much about the fathers of her children. Do you think this is deliberate? Are there any clues in the text as to who the fathers might have been?

6. What role do music and song play in the novel?

7. Thomas Augustus tells Rachel that in the runaway village, some people love to tell and retell the past, while others just want to forget it. How does the novel deal with the themes of remembering and forgetting?

8. What do you make of the character of Mary Grace? Why do you think Nobody is so drawn to her, and she to him?

9. The natural world plays a significant role in the novel. How does the landscape of the Caribbean relate to Rachel's journey? Do you think Rachel  sees nature as benevolent, malign or something in between?

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