Mining the real-life seventeenth-century Batavia mutiny for page-turning drama and emotional insight, this scintillating historical novel from the author of Things in Jars interweaves the stories of a pair of troubled children born three centuries apart.
1629. Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship's busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.
1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a teenager struggling with a dark past and Gil's actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.
The Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human cruelty, fate and friendship, and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose fates are inextricably bound together.
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 9781838856502
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 494 g
Dimensions: 220 x 144 x 35 mm
Edition: Main
Lyrical, haunting, a beautiful and elegant fictional interpretation of history, I loved it - KATE MOSSE
Majestic . . . Kidd packs the story with superb characters, high emotion and drama . . . this gripping story ebbs and bobs with surprises from Kidd's sparkling imagination - Independent
The ambition and execution of [Jess Kidd's] new book The Night Ship is breathtaking! Sweet and grim, epic and domestic - I loved it . . . readers are in for a treat - GRAHAM NORTON
[A] consistently gripping and impressively constructed novel . . . Kidd builds an immersive visual and olfactory world of the 17th century ship . . . since her first novel Himself [Kidd] has displayed a voracious talent for storytelling . . . [a] marvellous, spirited novel - Financial Times
Jess Kidd's extraordinary evocation of a place gruesome with ghosts and the stranglehold of the past is nothing short of brilliant. I loved it - HANNAH KENT
Gripping . . . The Night Ship is immersive, vivid and immediate, teeming with sensory detail that could only have come from extensive and diligent research and told in beautifully assured prose - Irish Times
Fabulous . . . Beautifully pitched, and told in the present tense, there's a wonderful immediacy to the children's stories as they cope with the harsh reality of their worlds but yearn for the magical and mystical, in this briny, beguiling book - Daily Mail
Kidd's writing is beautiful, a seemingly effortless layering of small details to create a vivid sense of place and geography . . . wonderful . . . memorable - Sunday Independent
I absolutely loved it . . . Fantastic - STEPHEN MANGAN
Compelling . . . [Possesses] great energy and originality - Sunday Times, Historical Fiction Book of the Month
This was a story of two children in two different times but their lives had run a lot of the same lines.
Mayken is from 1629, she had lost her mother and was put on a boat, the Batavia to go to her father, Imke, her...
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Oh this book! I knew I would enjoy it but it was even better than I thought it would be! I fell in love with it instantly. It broke my heart many a time and I cannot stop thinking about it.
It is based around the...
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I absolutely Loved this book. I was so enthralled by it, I struggled to put it down.
Judging a Book my its cover – I received an absolutely stunning paper back version of The Night Ship. The book is navy with gold...
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