LoveReading Says
Interpreting history in the best possible way, The Night Ship dances through dreams and nightmares. Two children connected by a thread in time, live on the edge of life itself as the adults around them change their worlds forever. The chapters travel between Mayken in 1628 and Gil in 1989, and as echoes of the past breach the later timeline, a dark dread settles. Award-winning author Jess Kidd has the most wonderful relationship with words, they arrived fully formed in my minds eye, fully capable of sending goosebumps skittering down my arms. There is so much wonder to be found in the writing, a sentence would pluck at my thoughts and send them in new directions. The whisper of the fantastical settles into the darkness, my emotions were on full alert, waiting, anxious, expecting chaos and violence. Friendship and love make themselves known, they felt precious and I treasured those moments. Mayken and Gil have clambered into my heart and will remain there. This is a book that lingers in my thoughts, even days after reading it I still feel the movement of the ship and ponder the connections of the lives lived within. Joining our LoveReading Star Books, The Night Ship lifts and soothes even as it provokes and hurts, it truly is a thing of beauty.
Liz Robinson
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The Night Ship Synopsis
Based on a real-life event, an epic historical novel from the award-winning author of Things in Jars that illuminates the lives of two characters: a girl shipwrecked on an island off Western Australia and, three hundred years later, a boy finding a home with his grandfather on the very same island.
1629: A newly orphaned young girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks.
1989: A lonely boy named Gil is sent to live off the coast of Western Australia among the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once resided. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck...?
With her trademark "thrilling, mysterious, twisted, but more than anything, beautifully written" (Graham Norton, New York Times bestselling author) storytelling, Jess Kidd weaves a unputdownable and charming tale of friendship and sacrifice, brutality and forgiveness.
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781838856540 |
Publication date: |
1st June 2023 |
Author: |
Jess Kidd |
Publisher: |
Canongate Books |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
386 pages |
Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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Recommendations: |
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About Jess Kidd
Jess Kidd Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from County Mayo. She is the author of three acclaimed novels for adults, Himself, The Hoarder and Things in Jars, and a book for children, Everyday Magic. In 2017, Kidd won the Costa Short Story Award and in 2020 she was picked by The Times as one of the best emerging Irish writers.
author photo © Travis McBride
More About Jess Kidd