Yves Bonavero

Plot in a Nutshell
Terence, Cathy and their daughter Lucy are sailing towards Dubrovnik when caught in a horrific storm. Wind and sea battered they just make port late at night. Shortly after arrival they meet an equally damaged boat and its weary skipper, Kurt. Throughout the night the three adults talk as Kurt tells not only the story of his most recent hours at sea but his earlier life.

Thoughts
I bought this book originally because it mentioned it was set in Dubrovnik and I was planning a trip there. , however the sea is really the main location – from balmy friend during the beginning pages to angry would be killer during the storm. Kurt’s story is also intrinsically tied to the sea and captures this duality well.

After this is where I think the novel goes wrong for me. In many ways the novel has a dual narrative structure but the way in which this is introduced – Terrence narrating overall but with pages and pages of Kurt articulating his story did not really work for me. Much of the tension to drive the novel forward comes from Kurt’s story but despite the eye catching introduction I found that it dragged. I did not develop any real engagement in it and overall it felt a little predictable. Finally whilst we are shown snippets that lead the reader to question the extent to which Terrence is a particularly reliable narrator the final twist, which in contrast to Kurt’s story, I did not see coming, through me and the content of the twist itself I did not enjoy at all.… (plus d'informations)