Malva Walks

When high-mountain dweller Anya serendipitously ends the hope-crushing decades without any human births by sleeping with a wayward monk, she sets in motion generations of power struggle. The ascetic monks, as the only known fertile men, set the terms by which women may seek children, reserving the option to keep some of the babies born inside the monastery walls. Met with early resistance by the Sea Clan's matriarchs, the monks imposed even harsher conditions, endangering the lives of the young women who now climb the mountain with no kin at their side. Third-generation Seeker Malva leaves her ship with trepidation, determined to help the Sea Clan carry on but worried about the tales of young women who never returned. When Malva encounters Scavengers, men poisoned by the Blue Dust from the toxic detritus still littering the seas, neither the Innkeepers nor the ancient, retired midwife Anya can save her from the Dust's grip. She sails north at its behest, aided by Arok, a runaway from the monastery. The elderly Sea Mothers still blame Anya for her role in taking one of their twin daughters on behalf of the monks. But to find and save granddaughter Malva, they must collaborate with Anya and her fugitive son. Tracking Malva to the shores of the Far North, by the relics of past cities, they discover a secret that could break the monks' iron hold.Can they overcome past animosities and work together, not just for Malva but for all generations to come?