The reason, in a word, is voice. (Aided, of course, by the fact that
octopuses areremarkably bright creatures.)
There is also a second human
narrator, the woman who cleans the octopus tank at night—and when she begins to
share her life story through his tank’s glass while simultaneously trying to
keep it fingerprint-free, they develop a strong bond.
Though the story is
somewhat predictable—and rather, um, fantastic,
in all meanings of the word—the specificity of detail (and that Voice) keeps it
all surprisingly believable. We care what happens because of the unique
richness of Marcellus and Tova’s relationship.
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK
'Full of heart and humour . . . I loved it.' Ruth Hogan
'Will stay with you for a long time.' Anstey Harris
'I defy you to put it down once you've started' Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago keeping busy has helped her cope. One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who…
I
love historical fiction because I can drop into another time and place without
leaving my window seat or Adirondack chair. Daughters of Nantucket is told
through the eyes of four very different women who live through the Great Fire
of 1846.
It shows the strength of women, the divisions of a small town, and how
those divisions disappear when tragedy unites a community. It also shows the
isolation/insulation of island life, which is definitely a theme in my own
novels.
“Gerstenblatt's distinctive tale, a triumph in storytelling, celebrates the courage and tenacity of women.” —Booklist, starred review
Set against Nantucket’s Great Fire of 1846, this sweeping, emotional novel brings together three courageous women battling to save everything they hold dear…
Nantucket in 1846 is an island set apart not just by its geography but by its unique circumstances. With their menfolk away at sea, often for years at a time, women here know a rare independence—and the challenges that go with it.
Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to…
I felt cold while reading Terra Nova, even though I
was inside a warm house and under a blanket. That’s how strong the writing and imagery
are in this novel, which is set in the early 1800s and narrated by three
people: two Antarctic explorers locked in a race to plant a British flag at the
pole and the woman back in London who loves them both.
She’s a photographer,
and her decision to capture the bodies of London’s hunger strikers will have
lifelong ramifications for all three of them.
A haunting story of love, art, and betrayal, set against the heart-pounding backdrop of Antarctic exploration-from the Boston Globe-bestselling author of The Clover House.
The year is 1910, and two Antarctic explorers, Watts and Heywoud, are racing to the South Pole. Back in London, Viola, a photo-journalist, harbors love for them both. In Terra Nova, Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly ushers the reader back and forth between the austere, forbidding, yet intoxicating polar landscape of Antarctica to the bustle of early twentieth century London.
Though anxious for both men, Viola has little time to pine. She is photographing hunger strikers in the…
Loner James Malloy is a ferry captain—or used to be, until he was unceremoniously fired and replaced by Courtney Farris. Now, instead of piloting Brenton Island’s daily lifeline to the glitzy docks of Newport, Rhode Island, James spends his days beached, bitter, and bored.
When he discovers a private golf course staked out across wilderness sacred to his dying best friend, a Narragansett Indian, James is determined to stop such “improvements.” But despite Brenton’s nickname as “Cooperation Island,” he’s used to working solo. To keep rocky bluffs, historic trees, and ocean shoreline open to all, he’ll have to learn to work with other islanders—including Captain Courtney, who might just morph from irritant to irresistible once James learns a secret that’s been kept from him for years.
This salt-sprayed fourth novel by 2004 Olympic Sailor Carol Newman Cronin celebrates wilderness and water, open space and open-mindedness, and the redemptive power of neighborly cooperation.
