Cross Tides

A gripping young adult novel that sweeps from the pioneer past to the present.

In the late 1820s, Lizzie Dawson, only sixteen, was forced to be the child bride of a notorious whaler in the remote Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand. There began a living hell — until she met Matthew, a young Maori preacher, and with love came defiance.

Flash forward to today. Bel, also sixteen, is sent to a remote farm in the Sounds. Her parents are in the throes of divorce and Bel's turbulent thoughts attract an uneasy force. '"At last," says a voice in my head. "You're here." And I know without a doubt that Lizzie has come for me, and me alone.' Lizzie has an urgent story to tell. Past events drive her to reach across time, across worlds.

In this extraordinary first novel, Lorraine Orman evokes the nineteenth-century whalers' lives as vividly as the contemporary story. Cross Tides sweeps you into its double world with eerie, irresistible power.