He was just a fat runt of a puppy. He didn't look much like his namesake, Mighty Rover, but when the witch gave Riki Snarfari his True Name, it stuck.

She was just a poor farm girl. She lived alone with her mother in a quiet seaside village and spent her days running after the cows.

When Viking raiders attack, both are taken as prisoners. The Viking ways are strange: their huts grander, their food richer, their dreams bigger. Freydis, their leader, is a bold Viking woman who bows before no man. Like her people, she can be intelligent and shockingly brave one minute, then heartlessly brutal the next.

Behind Hekja there is pain, but ahead is an open sea, and a remarkable adventure for one girl and her dog. As they sail on to Iceland, Greenland, and beyond, a runner and a rover must finally find their home.

Vividly real, masterfully conceived, and rich with larger-than-life characters, Jackie French's rover is a voyage to a world of intrigue, discovery, and surprise.