new book 2025 fall.

South London, 1981. Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed. Daphne's attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every way: lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic, and they form an intense bond. As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. When Connie reveals that he and his mother 'nuh land'--meaning they're in England illegally--Daphne realizes that she is dangerously entangled in Connie's fragile home life. Soon, long-buried secrets in both families threaten to tear them apart permanently"--.