Roberts' adult debut achieves the perfect balance of sweet and bitter.
When the world is forced to look to the riches of space for human
survival, Agatha Whisper finds her family caught between the traditions
of rural life, and a technological advance that will once again change
the world -- and her son -- forever. Her family's future is at stake,
but the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance.
Agatha Whisper knows her young son is different. Wilfie struggles in
class, yet his knowledge of space is far beyond his years. But it goes
deeper than that -- and it is only when the world is forced to look to
the riches of space for human survival that she realises how deep.
The world needs a visionary who believes the skies above will be his one
day. No one cares if that visionary is a small boy.
Except Agatha. She has thrived for years alone with her family in the
moorland that she calls home - finding friends in the creatures and
lessons in the natural world - and now faces losing everything when her
son is swept up in a dubious scheme hatched by a major corporation.
Where Wilfie sees adventure, Agatha sees only danger.
But will the remoteness of the Whisper's beloved moorland home, Grey
Cottage, that binds her family tightly together be enough to keep Wilfie
safe? And will Agatha be able to safeguard her own dark secrets while
protecting her son?
Poetic, tender and full of hope, Precious Matter is a heart-rending
but ultimately uplifting story that reveals how, even in our bleakest
moments, our capacity for love endures.
