Story Description:
Little, Brown And Company|April 3,
2012|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-316-18590-5
Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life .
In the summer of 1914 the elegant ocean liner carrying
her and her husband, Henry, across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion.
Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, in
which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.
As the castaways battle the elements, and each other,
Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met and the new life of
privilege she thought she’d found. Will
she pay any price to keep it?
The Lifeboat is a
page-turning novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable
and complex as the events she describes.
My Review:
The Lifeboat is a
page-turning account of 21 days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean narrated by
22-year-old Grace Winter. The lifeboat
is overloaded and some people are going to have to die, jumping overboard to
their deaths to drown in the sea. Asking
for volunteers there is utter silence so straws are drawn and those 3 who
choose the shortest must go overboard. Who
could feel right about playing God in this way?
The personalities of the men and women in the lifeboat
are as different as night and day. There
are those who are trouble makers, those who are afraid of their own shadow,
those that feel ‘they’ must be in charge, and those that vacillate between the
combination of learning to go with the flow so as not to be centered out by
anyone.
The emotions that these poor people go through are
horrendous to say the least and the lack of food and water doesn’t help but
when your lips are swollen to twice their normal size, split open and bleeding
and your tongue so dried out and swollen that it’s cracking and drinking the
salty sea-water is not an option for it would only worsen their condition.
In the end, three of the woman, including the quiet
narrator, Grace Winter, are on trial for murder. Having been forced to make a decision at sea
brought them to the point of out and out murder, however what transpires in the
courtroom will surprise you.
As a debut novel, this was well-written, well thought
out and left you feeling hopeful that you yourself are never put in the same
position as these people found themselves.
Charlotte Rogan has written a compelling, page-turner that should not be
missed.
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