Where the Wilderness Lives.

Jess Butterworth.

Children’s (but this adult loved it)

This was one of my favourite books of the year and follows the adventures of four siblings and their wolfhound who live on a narrowboat on an English canal. After they find a mysterious locked safe at the bottom of a drained section of canal, they are almost kidnapped by a stranger desperate to claim the safe. With their mum injured after slipping into the canal, the children seek help from their somewhat feral father who lives in a remote cabin in Wales. Unable to contact him via phone and the kidnapper hot on their heels, the children commandeer a boat and navigate the canal in the dark. As the safe-thief closes in, the children flee the waterway and hop on a train to Wales with the aim of finding their father. A trek through an ancient Welsh forest presents perils, not least when a snowstorm blows in. This is a gripping and beautiful story that celebrates the English and Welsh countryside and its ancient legends and ways of life.