Book description
Sixteen-year-old Mara and her ship of refugees are tracking the North
Star, desperate to find a homeland in the melted ice mountains of
Greenland. The vast, floating city of Pomperoy is just one of the shocks
that are not in their navigation plans. Unwittingly, the refugees bring
catastrophe in their wake for Tuck, a gypsea pirate-boy, and also for
Ilira - a land whose inhabitants exist in a state of terror at the top
of the world. Back in the drowned ruins at the feet of the towering sky
city, Fox is beginning his battle with the cruel, corrupt forces that
rule the New World. But separated from Mara, his resolve begins to waver
. . .
After an early career as a teacher and freelance feature writer for
major Scottish newspapers, Julie Bertagna has quickly established a
reputation as an author of powerful and original fiction for young
people. EXODUS, the launch title for Young Picador and her first novel
for Macmillan, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book of
the Year Award and won the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year
Award and the Angus Award. THE OPPOSITE OF CHOCOLATE was shortlisted
for the Book Trust Teenage Prize 2004. Julie lives in Glasgow with her
husband and daughter.
