An Absence of Squirrels

Welcome to Thutta. We have a train, an ocean and 5,120 people. One of these people is Katli, although she pretends to be seven people — making up new versions of herself is her way of dealing with being a thirteen-year-old on an island where nothing much happens. Until one morning, when she follows a cat off a train and sets off a sequence of events involving absent animals, mysterious meetings and sneaky schemes. As the secrets grow into something much bigger than Katli could have imagined, she knows one thing for sure: life on the island will never be boring again. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t say SQUI—