The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
My rating: 4/5 cats
1914.
the atlantic ocean.
39 people.
one lifeboat.
where people stop being polite and start being real.
oh, yeah…
i loved this book.
it has all the elements of a good survival story with all the furnishings of a well-written mystery novel. alliances will form, motives will be shrouded, lies and misdirection will win the day, and exposure and deprivation will make even the well-intentioned people a little loopy and unreliable.
it is a great idea for a novel, and rogan writes it well. the framing device is of a survivor – married for ten weeks and a widow for over six – standing trial along with two other women for murrrderrrrr. but where is the line between murder and what needs to be done in order to come out the other side of extreme circumstances?
and is anyone at all telling the truth?
this story is very carefully told. hints are dropped here and there, peppering the narrative with doubt and revelations of manipulation, feigned oblivion, and ulterior motives, but it is still a pretty harrowing survival story. it just happens to also be a clever character study and a meditation on faith vs human agency, gender politics, and difficult choices.
all in this tiny little package!
this is the queen of all unreliable narrators, and i found myself wanting to start the whole book over again from the beginning immediately after finishing it.
i don’t want to give anything away, but i highly suggest putting it on your “to-read” shelf and snatching it up when it comes out on april 10.
i am excited to talk about this book with others.
