Ingo [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Helen Dunmore, author of Zillah and Me and The Silver Bead, begins a trilogy for children with a novel that describes both an idyllic life, growing up beside the sea, and an undersea world of wonder and amazement with equal aplomb. It’s not easy to imagine life under the waves, living and breathing amongst an ancient people without resorting to stereotypes. But Dunmore’s original description throughout this book is one of its best qualities.

Set in Cornwall, Ingo is the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and what happens to them after their father mysteriously disappears at sea. Sapphire still thinks her father is alive. Somewhere. She remembers stories he used to tell her about a Mer creature who fell in love with a human, but could not come to live with him in the dry air.

The following summer, both Conor and Sapphire are inexorably drawn to the water, despite the worries of their mother. They love the water so much, and spend hours in the nearby cove. When Sapphire follows Conor one day, after he has been gone a long time, she meets Faro--a Merman who introduces her to Ingo, an underwater world she could only have dreamed existed. And Ingo blood runs deep through her veins and it is not long before the call of that other world becomes too strong to resist.

Dunmore is an accomplished writer for adults, she was the first winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, but her books for younger readers, despite having all the same qualities and powerful storytelling talent, have not been as critically or commercially successful. Ingo, however, is sure to change that perception. It is a beautiful novel, both enchanting and exciting, that appeals to readers on many levels. It is seductively easy to read and stays in the memory for a long time.

(Age 10 and over) --John McLay --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

“… the lyrical writing and Dunmore's intense sympathy with and for all she describes make this a perfect book with which to wind up the summer holidays, or to recollect them.” Amanda Craig, The Times

A spellbinding magical adventure. Master storyteller Helen Dunmore writes the story of Sapphire and her brother Conor, and their discovery of INGO, a powerful and exciting world under the sea.

You’ll find the mermaid of Zennor inside Zennor church. She fell in love with a human, but she was a Mer creature and so she couldn’t come to live with him up in the dry air. She swam up the stream to hear him sing, then one day he swam down it and was never seen again. He became one of the Mer people…

Sapphire’s father told her that story when she was little. When he is lost at sea she can’t help but think of that old myth; she’s convinced he’s still alive.

The following summer her brother Conor keeps disappearing for hours on end. She goes to the cove to find him, but instead meets Faro, an enigmatic and intriguing Merman. He takes her to Ingo and introduces her to a world she never knew existed. She must let go of all her Air thoughts and embrace the sea and all things Mer.

After her first visit she is entranced – merely the sound of running water makes her yearn to be in Ingo once more. Ingo blood runs strongly in Sapphy and Conor fears she will leave the Air world for good. He pleads with her to ignore her craving for the sea and stay safely in their cottage up on the cliff.

But not only is Sapphy intoxicated by the Mer world, she longs to see her father once more. And she’s sure she can hear him singing across the water…
“I wish I was away in Ingo
Far across the briny sea…”

Back cover
A world without air where all you breathe is adventure...

Front flap
A cold shiver is creeping over my skin, as cold as the mist. I know where Conor's gone. Down the track, through the bracken and foxgloves, down the path and out on to the grassy lip of cliff above the cove. Everything wet and shining with mist. The rocks hidden, the sea hidden. Down the rocks, between the boulders, on to the rocks. Everything slippery and dangerous... the sea pulling like a magnet. Pulling Conor as it pulled me.

Sapphire and her brother Conor’s life in Cornwall is idyllic; they are free to explore the beautiful cove near their cottage; they swim there and play together – it is their own special place. Until one terrible day when things change in a way they could never possibly have predicted. Why does Conor keep disappearing for hours on end? And who is the mysterious girl with long dark hair, talking to him on the rocks?

Following him down to the cove one day, Sapphy discovers a mysterious world she never knew existed. Soon she begins to let go of all the things she loves and cares about as she becomes intoxicated with this dangerous and exciting place, which is like nothing she has ever experienced before.

HELEN DUNMORE is a prize-winning author. In Ingo, part one of her first major trilogy for children, she has created a tantalisingly beautiful and dangerous world under the sea, and a story which is utterly mesmerising.

Back flap
HELEN DUNMORE is a novelist and poet as well as a children’s writer. She has published eight collections of poetry and won many prizes, and has written eight novels and two collections of short stories. She has won the Orange Prize for Fiction, and her most recent novel, The Siege, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction and was serialised on BBC Radio 4; it has also been selected as Bristol’s book for it’s Great Reading Adventure. Her writing for children includes short stories, novels and poetry. Helen travels extensively to read and lecture both in the UK and abroad, in countries as diverse as Morocco, Hong Kong and Romania. Ingo is the first novel in her major trilogy for children.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Helen Dunmore is an award-winning novelist and poet as well as a children's writer. She has published eight collections of poetry, and has written nine novels and two collections of short stories. She has won the Orange Prize for Fiction with her novel A Spell of Winter, and her novel The Siege was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction and was serialised on BBC Radio 4. Her latest novel, Counting the Stars, is published in February 2008.