An intensely powerful coming-of-age story steeped in African tradition and mythology, Alexander's lyrical novel centres on eleven-year-old Kofi and the harrowing event that separates him from his family and village and sends him on an epic journey across the sea.

Dreams are today's answers for tomorrow's questions. Eleven-year-old Kofi Offin has dreams of water, of its urgent whisper that beckons with promises and secrets. He has heard the call on the banks of Upper Kwanta, where he lives. He loves these things above all else: his family, the fireside tales of his father's father, a girl named Ama, and, of course, swimming. But when the unthinkable - a sudden death - occurs during a festival between rival villages, Kofi ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves. Yet Kofi's dreams may be the key to his freedom...