Shortlisted for the Booker Prize For the four fraught, mysterious days
of her doomed maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic sails towards New York,
glittering with luxury, freighted with millionaires and hopefuls. In
her labyrinthine passageways are played out the last, secret hours of a
small group of passengers, their fate sealed in prose of startling,
sublime beauty, as Beryl Bainbridge's haunting masterpiece moves
inexorably to its known and terrible end.
'A narrative both sparkling and deep . . . the cost of raising [the Titanic] is prohibitive; Bainbridge does the next best thing' SUNDAY TIMES
'Bainbridge's masterpiece' EVENING STANDARD
'Beryl Bainbridge enthralled us with the account of Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole and here we are with another ill-fated voyage, the maiden voyage of HMS Titanic to New York in 1912. The fact that we know how it will all end in no way detracts from this scintillating novel. The narrator is the nephew of the owner of the shipping line sailing the Titanic. During the four days before disaster strikes we are given glimpses of his troubled past, learn of his ambitions for the future and watch helplessly as he falls for a money-digging American woman who is far more interested in bedding the rich and well-connected men on board. The author vividly conveys the enclosed world, the white-tie dinners, the squash courts and reading rooms and the characters which inhabit them, schemers, dreamers, snobs and social climbers. This tale is a parable - we are all heading blithely to our doom while the band plays on - but it is never clunking. Bainbridge is writing at the top of her talent. A soon as you have finished the book, you will want to read it again, and discover new depths, deeper waters. Booker shortlist 1996.' (Kirkus UK)
Author
About Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge wrote seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, she won literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and Author of the Year at the British Book Awards. She died in July 2010.
