Internationally successful NZ author releases new YA/adult crossover novel

Scholastic New Zealand is delighted to release The Freedom Merchants, a gripping new YA/adult crossover novel by international bestselling author Sherryl Jordan, in June 2013.

The Freedom Merchants is a riveting tale of piracy and slavery set in the early 1600s; a powerful, dramatic story about a little-known white slave trade, which took place at the same time as the black slave trade to America.

Twenty-five years ago, young Liam’s small fishing village on the Irish Coast was raided and its population decimated by brutal corsair pirates from the Barbary Coast who killed, plundered, and took a number of his people back to Northern Africa as slaves to Muslim masters. Pirate ships continue to prowl the coasts for slaves, but one has been wrecked in Liam’s bay, and survivors are struggling ashore …

Sherryl says: “The Freedom Merchants was a wonderful book to write … it just flowed, as if the story was already in existence, and I had only to record it. Sometimes, when a story flows like that, I wonder if it really did happen – if the characters really did exist sometime in the past – and I simply tune into their memories.”

The novel will also be available as an ebook on Amazon later in June.

About the author:
Sherryl Jordan lives in Tauranga and is the internationally successful author of a wide range of YA fiction including Rocco, The Juniper Game, Tanith, Winter of Fire and last year’s Ransomwood, as well as NZ Post Children’s Book Award winner Finnigan and the Pirates and the hilarious Denzil books for younger readers.

Praise for Sherryl Jordan’s other stories:
Ransomwood: “This is one of the loveliest novels I have read in some time. Brilliantly told by one of New Zealand’s best story tellers. This novel will melt your heart.” — Bob Docherty, Bob’s Books Blog

Rocco: “This inspired book is a creative milestone in New Zealand writing for children.” — The Dominion