Gathering Blue

Kira lives in a bleak world of the future: Earth, with civilisation as we know it, utterly destroyed. Aggression rules and those with handicaps or deformities - like Kira's twisted leg - are left to die in the living grave called The Field. Exposed by her mother's death Kira must go The Council of Guardians to beg for her life and her place in the village. Her artistic talents are recognised and she is kept in isolation from the rest of the village in order to repair and complete the Singer's robe, which charts the history of civilisation. Kira discovers the shocking truth - that all artists have had their families destroyed and their natural creativity suppressed in order to shape the future of the community at The Guardians' behest. Despite being given a route to freedom by her missing father - who survived an attempt on his life but whom Kira believed had died in her infancy - she chooses to stay in order to embroider a very different future on the robe from the one which the Guardians wished to dictate. This is a story full of warnings - but also bright with hope. It celebrates the power and strength of the individual and reminds us that even one determined person can effect far-reaching changes.