Joel Gustafsson

12 year old Joel lives with his father in the cold northern part of Sweden. At night he often sneaks out of his father's house to look for a lonely dog he has seen from his window. On the bridge across the icy river he starts a secret society and has adventures. But one night he discovers that his father's bed is also empty and will have to come terms with his father's new-found love. The harsh reality of Joel's world comes vividly to life and leaves the reader spellbound.

Joel will soon be twelve, and he thinks nothing's going on in the small community where he lives. But he's wrong there. One day, a Miracle happens to him. He's very nearly run over by a bus, but is miraculously unhurt. Now, what do you do when a Miracle has come your way? Shouldn't you show gratitude somehow? Surely a good deed of some sort is in order. But how? A humorous, wise, and understanding portrait of a boy about to leave childhood behind him, this is an independent sequel to the award-winning and much-praised A Bridge to the Stars.

Joel is growing up. He is getting interested in girls. Just look at his New Year's resolutions: 1 - to see a naked lady, 2 - to toughen himself up so that he can live to be a hundred, and 3 - to see the sea. They all look pretty impossible for a motherless boy in Northern Sweden. Especially as his sailor dad is keen to drown his sadness in drink, and all the local matrons are narrowly watching the pair of them. And then he saves old Simon from a frozen death in the woods, and Joel becomes a local hero.

Joel is fifteen and has left school, wanting to become a merchant sailor and travel far away from his home town in Northern Sweden. But first he must face up to the past and meet his mother who ran off when he was little. After such a long time how will Joel and his dad cope with such a reunion and will Joel ever sail the seas as he dreams. . . ?