Recommended by the Reviewers Club
Another Australian novel which weaves the life of Joseph Conrad and his novels with 1990’s Cambridge, where Helen is completing her thesis on this literary figure. Helen is a troubled young lady who is distracted by her charming but dangerous lover; the reader learns much about the details of Conrad’s life which in some ways parallels Helen’s own journey. We learn that Conrad visited Australia numerous times in his seafaring career and the partly submerged wreck of the Otago near Hobart, a sailing ship Conrad once captained, is an integral concept of the novel. Colonialism and outsider status underline the communal thread shared by Conrad and Helen.
The novel combines vivid imagery and literary allusions with a significant storyline and makes for compulsive reading.
4.2/5 Stars