If you haven’t read Jess Kidd, please do! Here she takes a real historical Australian shipwreck and spins a mesmerizing tale with a young orphan girl on board. She then ties that into a compelling and heart wrenching story of a young boy in 1989 sent to live with his grandfather on a remote island. Jess reveals the kindness and cruelty of both eras while drawing us into caring deeply for these two children.
— Julie A.
October 2022 Indie Next List
“Jess Kidd connects the true history of a brutal 1629 shipwreck with the story of a lonely boy in modern day Western Australia with tenderness and vivid storytelling. Epic in scope and heart-wrenchingly detailed, this is Kidd at her best.”
— Yvette Olson, Magnolia's Bookstore, Seattle, WA
Description
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.
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