With the world's oceans ravaged by climate change, Émeraude, a young marine biologist, works to preserve aquatic ecosystems by recreating them for zoos. When her work earns her a spot aboard a research vessel with an extended mission in the Arctic, it is the inescapable draw of the ocean that will save her when the world she leaves behind is irrevocably changed.

Stories of Émeraude's ancestors — a young sailor abandoned at birth, a conjuror who mixes potions for her neighbours, a violent young man who hides in the woods to escape an even more violent war, and a talented young singer born to a mother who cannot speak — weave their way through her intimate reflections on a modest life, unknowingly shaped by those who came before. (From Dundurn Press)

J.D. Kurtness is a writer and member of the Innu nation. She won the Indigenous Voices Award for most significant work of prose in French in 2018 for her debut novel Of Vengeance. She lives in Montreal.

Pablo Strauss is a translator whose recent books include Of Vengeance by J.D. Kurtness, The Dishwasher by Stéphane Larue and Synapses by Simon Brousseau . Strauss was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for translation in 2017 for The Longest Year.