Winner of the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2015. ” What kind of a girl steals the clothes from a dead man`s back & runs off to join the army? A desperate one. That`s who.” At the end of the American Civil War, Charley
- a young African-American slave from the deep south
- is ostensibly freed. But then her adopted mother is raped & lynched at the hands of a mob & Charley is left alone. In a terrifyingly lawless l&, where the colour of a person`s skin can bring violent death, Charley disguises herself as a man & joins the army. Soon she`s being sent to the prairies to fight a whole new war against the ”savage Indians”. Trapped in a world of injustice & inequality, it`s only when Charley is posted to Apache territory that she begins to learn what it is to be truly free.