Not Yet Drown'd: A Novel [Hardcover]

Peg Kingman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2007

A mysterious parcel propels a young Scottish widow on a perilous quest to the far side of the world.

Catherine MacDonald is astonished to receive from her twin brother—who had reportedly drowned a year earlier, in the monsoon floods of 1821—a kashmiri shawl, a caddy of unusual tea, and a sheaf of traditional bagpipe music in his handwriting. When had he sent it? And why had he retitled a certain tune "Not Yet Drown'd"?

Irresistibly, Catherine is drawn to India to search for answers. With her stepdaughter and their two maids—one an enigmatic Hindu, the other a runaway American slave—she follows an obscure trail of tea, opium, and bagpipe music. In the course of their journey they meet botanists, smugglers, engineers, soldiers, and artists—as well as love and betrayal. And as they copy, translate, and finally understand certain Scottish and Indian paintings and music, they discover unsuspected truths about the man they are seeking.

This luminous and accomplished romance is the author's first novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kingman's stately debut historical stars Catherine MacDonald, a young widow in 1822 Edinburgh who is left with the care of Grace, the child from her husband's previous marriage. Just before she is unexpectedly visited by a representative of Grace's uncle, who wishes to take Grace to relatives in Virginia, Catherine receives a mysterious package from her twin brother, who reportedly drowned the previous year in India, containing tea, a fine shawl, and a sheaf of bagpipe music including a tune tantalizingly retitled "Not Yet Drown'd." Circumstances seem designed to compel Catherine to India-to protect her stepdaughter and to solve her brother's mystery-accompanied by her Indian and African maids, the latter an escaped slave. The journey has all of the era's fascination with the Orient, with a dash of the romantic, a little deceit and a central puzzle to keep things interesting. Though things move slowly, Kingman renders period detail-tea figures largely-with attentive care.
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Review

Taut and tense and full of surprises, it is a tribute to those who venture into the unknown. -- Alistair MacLeod, author of Island and No Great Mischief

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; X edition (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393065464
• ISBN-13: 978-0393065466
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Flows like fine tea, September 9, 2008

By 

Daniel A. Scott "Just honest!" (Philippi, WV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Not Yet Drown'd: A Novel (Paperback)

This book is slow. It presents lots of different, interesting, and unique information on a variety of different subjects that were of interest in the 1800's. The author obviously spent lots of time researching and adding these fine little details into the story at appropriate places. The story itself was well written and ended just as well. But it took forever to get to that end. The author just kept the book interesting enough to go on to the next chapter. I almost gave up on it several times, but decided to push on through. That's the only downside of the book and why I only give it three stars. It was just slow and added almost too much information in such a short book to give it the credit others reviewers have.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "We cannot always have everything we want.", September 5, 2007

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Not Yet Drown'd: A Novel (Hardcover)

In 1822, newly-widowed Catherine MacDonald is settling with her stepdaughter, Grace, into her brother, Hector's Edinburgh home. Recovering from the accidental death of her husband, Catherine is also grieving for her twin brother, Sandy, drowned in the Indian monsoons of 1821. An accomplished bagpipe musician, Sandy's true calling was the cultivation of tea, her sibling convinced that tea could be grown not only in China, but in India. Unfortunately, Sandy runs afoul of his employers, the East India Company, and is assigned to the opium fields shortly before his death in the monsoon season. When Catherine receives a package, the address penned in her twin's hand, she begins to wonder why the body was never found and whether her brother could still be alive. The package contains a Kashmiri shawl, a sheaf of handwritten music for bagpipes, including one titled "Not Yet Drown'd" and an ornate box filled with what appears to be tea leaves.

Before Catherine can pursue her thoughts about Sandy's fate, more serious events transpire that threaten her security and that of eight-year-old Grace. Having traveled all the way from America, a woman arrives on Hector's doorstep announcing her intention to deliver the child to blood relatives in Virginia. Catherine refuses, unleashing the stranger's wrath and a promise to return with the assistance of the law. Although Catherine prepares to flee, she seriously underestimates the perseverance of this woman, who manages a great coup, plucking the hapless Grace from the family. There ensues a dramatic chase and attempted rescue, Catherine suddenly on board ship with her brother, Hector, bound for India, where he intends to test the innovations he has made to the current methods of steamship travel. And Catherine isn't alone. Besides a trembling Grace, Catherine has added two more women to her party, the slave who accompanied the lady from Virginia and an enigmatic Indian maid, who has been trying to gain passage to India for her own reasons.

One could get lost in the modernization of steamship design or the complicated pages of bagpipe music that Catherine diligently copies to send back to her sister-in-law in Edinburgh, or even the day to day trials of life aboard ship. But the real drama of this novel is Catherine's journey to the interior of India in search of information about her brother's fate, the romance she does her best to sabotage and the gradual unfolding of the ayah's shocking story, filled with tales of ritual and tradition and a great love gone astray. India is the jewel of this crown, all events conspiring to focus on a country still in the throes of Britain's imperialist agenda, the pampered English oblivious to the lives of those around them, save the administration of their creature comforts. Yet somehow Catherine manages to overcome every obstacle with the help of her Indian maid-turned-confidant, their friendship blooming as the weeks pass. From fog-shrouded Scotland to the dense jungles of India, the intricacies of tea plantations and steamboat races, Catherine has the adventure of a lifetime, her grieving heart restored by an awakening love and the restoration of all she holds dear. Luan Gaines/2007.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Luxurious and Tasteful, May 24, 2009

By 

Busy Mom (Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Not Yet Drown'd: A Novel (Hardcover)

When one of my fellow book club members told me that everyone in the club was struggling with reading this book, I was kind of alarmed. I had too many other books piled up and I didn't want to be stuck with a dud of a book.

To my relief, it is one of the better fiction that I've read this year. It helped that I had a big chunk of time to devote to it since it is a slower-paced book, but it is so fascinating. It is so luxurious and tasteful. It is a long smooth ride into the past ... traveling from Scotland to India on a steam ship. It is informative about tea, a twin's longing to see her brother, a wife who misses her husband and more. It is just a sublime book ... much to my surprise. I did thought that the descriptions of the steam ship would be so boring, but it wasn't. Everything moved so smoothly, so freshly and so wonderfully. It was like a vacation of the mind.

The book is about Catherine who had received a message from her twin, Sandy, who was presumed drowned the year before in the monsoons of India. Catherine had just endured her own grieving of losing her beloved husband and raising her stepdaughter when the message came in a cryptic form of a song. Forced to leave Scotland in order to keep her stepdaughter, Gracie, she decided to go to India to see if Sandy was still alive. Accompanied by her older brother, Hector, who was also the designer of the steamboats, his partner Fleming, several other characters, a Hindu maiden and a runaway American slave. Their stories all entwined with Catherine's story ... no matter how small or large their stories were, they were just as interesting as Catherine's story.

As a reader, I was there along for the ride ... feeling the cool breeze on my back as the ship heads south to the equator ... to seeing the elephants walking in the Indian jungles. The writing is very lyrical, almost with a native beat to it. It is descriptive and very informative. It is chock full of information, just like as if I'm there, listening to the captains or Hector describing how the ship runs. It can be boring ... but Kingman made it very interesting. That is a rare talent indeed, to take something as dull as engineering and make it into a wonderful idea ... and get the reader excited about it. What a great novel!

This is a perfect novel for book clubs and avid historical fiction readers too. There is so much in this book to discuss and to mull over ... that one just need to take it all in. However, this book will lure you away from your chores and jobs because it is just a fascinating read ... so you've been warned.

5/24/09