Exile from Space

Joanna was born in the void between worlds, raised on Earth by parents who never stopped longing for the stars. Now, at fifteen, she's being sent back to the space colonies she's never known, where she doesn't speak the language, understand the customs, or fit into bodies that have evolved for zero gravity. She's an exile in both directions: too human for the future, too alien for the present. The colony's leaders worry she'll flee back to Earth and expose their existence. She worries she'll never understand why she feels like a stranger in her own skin. What she discovers will change everything she believed about where she belongs. Merril's 1956 novel (originally published as The Tomorrow People) was one of the first young adult science fiction novels, and it remains startlingly fresh. It's a quiet, aching book about the pain of being caught between two worlds, and the strange freedom of discovering you might not have to choose.