Alis

At fourteen, Alis has never been outside her strict religious community. But when her parents arrange for her to marry a forty-year-old man, she flees desperately to the dangerous, unfamiliar city. She learns quickly that the only way to survive there is to become a thief—or worse. Facing an impossible choice between a forced marriage or life on the streets, Alis seizes control of her own fate. But the path she chooses sets off a disastrous chain of events that leave her accused of murder. Steadfastly loyal, Alis must decide: will she betray a loved one or sacrifice herself? Naomi Rich's compelling debut novel explores the struggle of a young girl torn between obedience and free will in an increasingly extremist religious society.Is love worth dying for? When Alis's parents reveal that she has been chosen to marry a man of forty, she is distraught - how can such an unnatural marriage be right? She abandons her life in the oppressive community where she has been brought up and flees to the city in search of freedom, only to find herself caught up in events beyond her control. Will Alis's decision to defy her parents have fatal consequences, not just for her, but for everyone who tries to help her, including the boy she loves? Raised within the strict religious confines of the Community of the Book, Alis flees from an arranged marriage to the much older Minister of her town and her life takes a series of unexpected twists before she returns to accept her fate