Sea prayer (Bloomsbury Publishing)

A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller A deeply moving, gorgeously illustrated short story for people of all ages from the international bestselling author of The Kite Runner, brought to life żeby Dan Williams's beautiful illustrations 'The book may be brief, but it is beautiful, poetic - a distillation of his strengths' - Sunday Times On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive.

He speaks to his boy of the long summers of his childhood, recalling his grandfather's house in Syria, the stirring of olive trees in the breeze, the bleating of his grandmother's goat, the clanking of her cooking pots.

And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee. When the sun rises they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.