Sarah Crossan has lived in Dublin, London and New York, and now lives in Hertfordshire. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at the University of Cambridge. Sarah Crossan won the 2016 CILIP Medal, the YA Book Prize, the CBI Book of the Year Award and many other prizes for her novel One. Sarah is the current Laureate na nÓg.

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Now available in a gorgeous new package, Sarah Crossan's exquisite debut novel explores first love, friendship and quiet courage. It will leave you sad, happy and wanting more.

Sometimes I want to tear off my clothes

And show them I'm the same

Underneath -

Maybe better.

Life is lonely for Kasienka. She misses her old home in Poland, her mother's heart is breaking, and at her new English school friends are scarce. But when someone new swims into her life, Kasienka learns that there is more than one way to stay afloat.

This stunning novel from multi-award-winning author Sarah Crossan explores how to pick up the pieces when everything you know is turned on its head and you have to start all over again.

Poignant, powerful, just perfect

Succinct, with a gentle lyricism, the poems are telling about immigration, prejudice, self-delusion, families and first love, on the way to a life-changing conclusion

This poetic novel is sheer perfection - for adults as well as for teenagers. Being in Kasienka's head, the reader gains a new understanding of how alienation feels. I loved it

A compellingly beautiful, utterly seductive debut novel . Do not miss it, and press it upon your friends and acquaintances

You've entered the young Polish girl's voice with a heartfelt conviction. I felt like I was watching a movie of her life in present time and at the same time sharing in what's happening inside her head. What I especially like is that nothing is overstated, but there are so many pregnant issues there - prejudice, migration, language bias - but what's so disarming and charming is the way the girl reveals her inner self with a poetic and resonant simplicity