Description

From the acclaimed author of The Deep Sky and The Stardust Grail comes the tender and gripping tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister – and Earth’s environmental salvation.

‘An absorbing, compelling tale of love, loyalty and danger’ Guardian

‘An unforgettable novel that teems with big ideas and abundant heart’ Michelle Min Sterling, New York Times bestselling author of Camp Zero

‘A brilliant triumph and a heartfelt love letter’ J.R. Dawson, award-winning author of The First Bright Thing

‘Urgent and gorgeously written’ Sarah Brooks, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands

‘Get a copy of Saltcrop for all the perpetually warring siblings you know’ Vajra Chandrasekera, author of the Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus award-winning The Saint of Bright Doors

‘Luminous, credible, and engrossing from beginning to end’ Kirkus, starred review

‘A tale that feels both intimate and expansive. It’s an impressive feat’ Publishers Weekly, starred review

In Earth’s near future, seas consume coastal cities and mutant fish lurk in their depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother.

Her eldest sister, Nora, left home in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. Now, she’s missing. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to save her.

But their voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange brings them to question what dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister – or each other?

Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.

Publisher Review

Praise for Saltcrop
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‘Set in a watery world of environmental catastrophe, Saltcrop is a moving testament to the distant places we’ll sail to in order to salvage the earth and our families. Part eco-thriller, part sisterhood epic, Kitasei has written an unforgettable novel that teems with big ideas and abundant heart.’ Michelle Min Sterling, New York Times bestselling author of Camp Zero

‘This is a beautiful book about the people you’d cross oceans for. A brilliant triumph and a heartfelt love letter to the siblings we don’t understand but are irrevocably sworn to.’ J.R. Dawson, award-winning author of The First Bright Thing

‘Saltcrop’s near-future world of blight and corporate greed is terrifyingly plausible, but this is a story of resilience and survival, and of the strength of family bonds. The novel finds beauty in the natural world, even as it is exploited and threatened, and it finds hope in the messy, relatable, and life-affirming love between the Shimizu sisters. Urgent and gorgeously written, Saltcrop is an adventure, a family drama, an ecological thriller, and above all a story of ordinary humans doing extraordinary things.’ Sarah Brooks, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands

‘The blighted and ruined landscapes the Shimizu sisters traverse, and the disease-struck, semi-feral communities they encounter, all feel dangerously nearby, a world three minutes into the the future of our present disastrous trajectory. The love they bear for each other, even if it’s often tangled up in old pains and many mutual irritations, make even that future feel survivable. Get a copy of Saltcrop for all the perpetually warring siblings you know.’ Vajra Chandrasekera, author of the Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus award-winning The Saint of Bright Doors