Set in the lush forests and coasts of Western Europe around 8,000 years ago, the compelling Nahia offers a glimpse into the chaotic moment when hunter-gatherers were beginning to encounter people who practiced agriculture and introduces readers to a fierce and intuitive girl coming of age within this framework.
Nahia, as firstborn daughter of the headwoman of the Sea People, can't understand why her mother is ignoring the ominous signs that it's time to move her people inland to safety. Bands down the coast have been attacked by strangers from far away, food is growing scarce, the weather has been stormy, and social unrest threatens to fracture the Sea People. But after expressing her concerns one too many times, Nahia is ousted from the community and sent to live with a shaman named Eneko. While traveling in her beloved forest with the intimidating but kind shaman, Nahia discovers that she can hear the voice of the spirits, and she is terrified by what they have to tell her about her people.
Archeologist Emily Jones, in her YA fiction debut, infuses expert storytelling with deep knowledge from her background. The result is a powerfully creative and moving work of fiction that develops the realistic and relatable pre-history characters of Nahia and the matriarchal Sea People. They, like so many cultures forced to face changes from outside, experience the grim and sometimes brutal tension between changing their ways and holding onto traditions. Jones adds depth and richness to her imagined world with over a dozen pages of notes describing what is known about the era of her fictional Sea People. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor