Description

‘An ideal class reader… Highly recommended’ School Reading List
‘Truly original’ English 4 – 11 Magazine
‘A fantastic mythical, timeslip adventure’ Juno Magazine

A mythical timeslip story about family, love, loss and memory, with an epic sea voyage at its heart, inspired by the legend of Odysseus.

Phoebe dreams of becoming an artist like her grandmother, Cass, a brilliant storyteller who has passed on her love of Greek myths to Phoebe. But Cass is disappearing before Phoebe’s eyes, lost to a cruel illness that is destroying her memory. When Phoebe ruins Cass’s seascape inspired by childhood holidays on the Greek island of Ithaca, she is mysteriously swept away to a fantasy world that resembles her favourite myth of all – The Odyssey.

There Phoebe is caught up in a young boy’s mission to find his long-lost father – a shipbuilder to King Odysseus, last seen going off to fight in the Trojan War – and faces an epic quest of her own. To seek the shape-shifting monster whose ravenous and growing power may hold the key to Phoebe fighting her own demons. Only by defeating the monster and facing her fears, will she have any hope of finding her way home and back to Cass.

Publisher Review

'We all have monsters to face. This book skillfully combines a fast-moving fantasy adventure in the world of the Odyssey with a very real struggle against the monsters of guilt and grief' * Gillian Cross, author of The Demon Headmaster series * Rich in period detail... an involving, well-characterised tale that feels original * Sunday Times on Circus Maximus series * 'The story is ultimately one of both hope and acceptance as seen through the eyes of children' * School Reading List * Younger readers will be obsessed * Stylist on Circus Maximus series * Lovers of history and heart-stopping adventure will be gripped by this action-packed and fast-paced read * Armadillo Magazine on Circus Maximus series *