Isabelle the Navigator [Paperback]

Luke Davies (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2002

Isabelle Airly is having trouble staying afloat. Her father, a gentle physician, has taken his own life, and Isabelle is sorting out the facts about his arrest for insurance fraud, his descent into madness-and how much he really knew about what was going on all those years between his wife and his brother. At the same time, she is mourning a loss of her own, and exploring her memories of a childhood that might not have been as idyllic as it seemed. If Isabelle can chart her father's course, maybe she can chart her own. And maybe she'll eventually land safely on solid ground.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Isabelle the Navigator, Australian poet and novelist Luke Davies (Candy) examines family secrets and tragedies through the eyes of his female protagonist. The novel begins shortly after the death of Isabelle Airly's father, Tom. A doctor, he had spent four years in prison for insurance fraud; from the time of his release until his suicide at the age of 56, he fell further out of touch with reality. Part of his despair was caused by the affair his wife, Tess, had with his brother, Dan, when Isabelle was a little girl. At 22, Isabelle meets the love of her life, Matt, who is five years her senior and works as a deckhand and later as a band manager. Their passionate affair lasts for a few years, until Matt is killed in a motorcycle accident. Then Isabelle moves to Paris, has an affair with a Portuguese woman named Laura and generally tries to make sense of her life. Although the language is frequently overcooked, Davies tells Isabelle's story with sensitivity and passion.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Luke Davies is the author of three books of poetry: Four Plots for Magnets, Absolute Event Horizon (shortlisted for the 1995 Turnbull Fox Phillips poetry prize), and Running with Light (winner of the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for Poetry) as well as a previous novel, Candy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425186040
• ISBN-13: 978-0425186046
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,194,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And now the world shrinks to a point...., December 21, 2004

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Isabelle the Navigator (Paperback)

After coming across Luke Davies first novel, Candy, I couldn't wait for the appearance of his next book. While Isabelle The Navigator lacks the powerfully compulsive magnetism of Candy, it is still nonetheless a work of art, displaying Davies's wonderfully poetic prose as he dives into the depths of grief.

Isabelle had a wonderful childhood, brought abruptly to an end when her physician father Tom is arrested and sent to prison for Medicare fraud. She also discovers that her mother had been having an on and off affair with her uncle Dan, Tom's brother. Then her love of four years, Matt, is suddenly killed in a highway accident, which leaves Isabelle feeling as though she were an empty vessel.

Davies probes the depths of Isabelle's grief with such rhythmical and flowing prose that her pain is intimately felt by the reader, capturing the intense and profound emotions like very few writers can do. He begins by wading in the shallows of the initial loss of her father's love, as Tom drifts further and further into insanity after his release from prison, eventually plunging headlong into the icy and numbing depths of acute grief after Matt's death.

With scenes that smoothly move back and forth in time, Isabelle tells us the story of her losses and her determination to bring meaning back into her life while coming to grips with her past. From Davies homeland of Australia to the elegant charm of Paris to a brief visit to Hawaii, Isabelle finds that though her ghosts will always follow her, there is life after even the harshest of events strip away your intended future.

Perfect read, wonderful and beautiful and uplifting even in its heartbreaking reality, Davies has written another winner with Isabelle The Navigator. Don't forget to pick up a copy of Candy also. Enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A truly moving piece., February 25, 2005

By 

J. Anastasiow "janastasiow" (CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Isabelle the Navigator (Paperback)

This was a truly poetic piece, I felt like I was reading a piece of poetic prose. This book could easily be in a philosophy section as well as fiction, however, he discovers the inner core of human relationships with this novel. I was surprised because the writing was so different from his other book "Candy." I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What draws you into this book is the humanness he interweaves into it. You don't feel sorry for Isabelle, but there are parts of her that reside in every one of us. He makes her real and she grieves in real ways like the rest of us, he shows us that even characters in a book are not above the human reality and we all have to grieve in our own way and our own time. He brings us through her childhood into adulthood and we go on the ride with her through losses of her father mentally and physically and discoveries she makes along the way about life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read......, January 1, 2004

By 

Joe (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Isabelle the Navigator (Paperback)

Well let me start by saying, it's not Candy. It's a great story, and a good read, but it's not nearly as good as Candy. An emotional story with great character devolopment and nice to read. It's a sad romance, and a beautiful story. Would certainly reccomend.