Anne Hawk’s debut novel, The Pages of the Sea, brings its reader directly into Wheeler’s world in a Caribbean island of the 1960s. Wheeler is a young girl whose mother has recently moved to England in search of a better life, promising to send for her three daughters as soon as she possibly can. When we meet Wheeler, she is living with her aunts and cousins and really struggling to come to terms with her mother’s absence, to exist without the care and protection that she once offered her. 
 
As the novel progresses, we see Wheeler’s world with great detail and vividness, as she perceives it. Hawk excels at imagining the inner workings of a child’s brain, her sharp observations and sense of unfairness. With the passing of the months, Wheeler tries to make sense of the world after she realises that things don’t work the way she thought they did, as she observes those around her and navigates the new family dynamics. This novel is touched by a sense of profound sadness that is balanced by beautiful writing about the sea and the motif of the colour blue.