Laurie Halse Anderson lives in the USA and is the multi-award-winning author of many bestselling novels, including Speak and Fever 1793. She is also the author of Chains, the first in a series of three books to feature the defiant heroine Isabel, shortlisted for the 2010 Carnegie Medal.

Isabel and her sister, Ruth, are slaves. Sold from one owner to the next, they arrive in New York as the Americans are fighting for their independence, and the English are struggling to maintain control. Soon Isabel is struggling too. Struggling to keep herself and her sister safe in a world in which they have no control.

With a rare and compelling voice, this haunting novel tells not only the story of a remarkable girl and her incredible strength, but also of a time and place in which slavery was the order of the day and lives were valued like weights of meat or bundles of vegetables.