The Night Ship (Large Print / Library Binding)
Staff Reviews
The Night Ship is based on an actual historical event, infused with the menace of a slithering creature that wields curses as its weapon and with the menace of humans when we’re pushed to the brink of survival. Kidd plays with two timelines; 9 year old Mayken on the Batavia in 1629, a real-life ship bound for the Dutch East Indies where she meets with adventure and mythological horrors belowdecks, and 9 year old Gil who’s been transplanted onto a small treacherous island off the Western Coast of Australia in 1989, alone after the death of his mother, adrift amongst a fishing community that doesn’t know what to do with him and his expressive tortoise…and then he hears of a Dutch ship that was wrecked off the coast of his island 300 years earlier… You will fall deeply in love with both Mayken and Gil as they discover human nature–the best and unfortunately the worst of it–as only children can. Haunting, mesmerizing, captivating, the writing is magnificent, overflowing with wit and then heartbreak. It will effortlessly transport you from the isolation of the accursed high seas to a seemingly sleepy island that is festering with ghosts and the evil of men. And it will hold onto you long after you put it down.
— KarenOctober 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
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Based on a true story, 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 true work of magic" (V.E. Schwab, author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) about friendship, sacrifice, brutality, and forgiveness.
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