The Home Child

A haunting, deeply compelling narrative, that holds the reader tight to the animal anchor of the natural world, and speaks in the unique idiolect of its own genealogy

Andrew McMillan, author of PHYSICAL

Deeply moving. A graceful, delicate book, stunning in its emotional depth... I know I'll return to it many times in the future

Megan Hunter, author of THE END WE START FROM

An extraordinary work of imagination . . . Poetic virtuosity is combined with novelistic story-telling as we follow the unfolding fate of Eliza Showell . . . An exquisite book

Hannah Lowe

'Liz Berry's poems are captivating and charged with her characteristically rich and sensuous Black Country language. The Home Child brings to light the devastating history of forced child migration in the service of Empire and is a deeply moving tribute to the author's great aunt. This is a book that should be on the curriculum'

Naush Sabah

'A remarkable collection . . . A thought-provoking weave of fact and imagination . . . It describes in her own words how her life is transformed, and in doing so, transforms ours'

John Glenday

Only Liz Berry could write such raw and staggeringly beautiful poems

Fiona Benson

'Magnificent . . . She takes us on a heartbreaking journey, and she persuades us to examine our own past, whoever we are.'

Ian McMillan

'One of my favourite books of all time. Every collection by Liz Berry is a treasure, but this one struck even deeper. It has universal reach to the ongoing exploitation of earth's poor.

Pascale Petit

There is something of Hardy's heartbreak note to these poems . . . The Home Child is both blues and rhapsody; Liz Berry's musicality and gift for the telling image matched by her sensitivity to and love for her subject.

Declan Ryan

Liz Berry has given the world another ground-breaking collection of poems. These verses are sensitive and tender, yet the language is real and unflinching

Benjamin Zephaniah

Deeply moving, unforgettable.

Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat

The Home Child is so beautiful . . . [Liz] honours Home Children & with a eerie magic ventriloquises her ancestor Eliza Showell

Amy Key

'Liz Berry's poetry is spell-work . . . Her voice carves creatures out of words, and sets them dancing.'

Jen Campbell

A triumph. A novel in verse, an elegy, a profound act of witness . . . Eliza is brought to such tangible and complex life I feel as though I've met her

Luke Kennard

Liz Berry ... sings of love, loss, grief, work, wonder, hope. To say I love this, the quiet power of it, would understate

Jackie Morris, author of The Unwinding

One of the most anticipated second collections of the decade... Enchanting... Berry combines the historical and the personal, the local and international, weaving them into a story that has its own accumulating emotional force

Irish Times

A story that is not only heartbreaking but also, essentially, true ... [The Home Child] is a profound act of witness to a long injustice, and a beautifully crafted conjuring of a life lived as truly as possible

Guardian, Book of the Day

Liz Berry achieves a fusion of poetry and fiction as gripping as any thriller... Inspired by the true story of her great aunt...this compelling novel in verse is a moving portrait of a girl who will never see her family again

Daily Mail

One of the outstanding books of this year... Although this is a historical tale its resonance is timeless

Sunday Times

A tour de force... Beautifully crafted and quietly devastating, The Home Child is a masterpiece

Literary Review

Deeply poignant, the words through The Home Child seem cut into each page and defy you to read them at speed

Family Tree Magazine

Berry's novel in verse is based on an aunt she never met... It's vivid, compassionate and, a century after her forced migration, makes little Eliza Showell's voice heard at last

Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A wonderfully realised novel in verse

Guardian, *Books of the Year*

[With] exquisite storytelling and earthy lyricism as Liz Berry reimagines the life of her great aunt Eliza Showell

Poetry Society, *Books of the Year*

The Home Child… is consistently impressive… What distinguishes this book is not just its form but its approach

Critic