Secrets of the Sea: A Novel (P.S.) [Paperback]

Nicholas Shakespeare (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2008 | Series: P.S.

Torn by tragedy from his early life on a remote farm in Tasmania, Alex Dove has returned years later to start over. A chance encounter with quiet, alluring Merridy Bowman—a young woman similarly haunted by a tangled and catastrophic history—results in marriage, as two damaged souls unite to build a home, family, and livelihood far removed from civilization's bustle. Soon they are drawn into the unpredictable dynamics of small-town island life—and into the destructive orbit of an unscrupulous real estate agent who maintains a secret hold over both Doves. But when a shipwreck off the shore thrusts a troubled, possibly criminal teenage castaway into their world, Alex and Merridy's tenuously forged happiness is suddenly at grave risk, as they are forced to confront deeper questions about the true meaning of fulfillment.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shakespeare's quiet and moving fifth novel is a story as brooding and insular as the Tasmanian town in which it is set. Alex Dove, who left remote Wellington Point as a child, returns after college to deal with his deceased parents' failing farm. Merridy Bowman is on leave from university to nurse her dying father, who has moved into a Wellington Point retirement community. The two outsiders forge a relationship (despite the brief but spirited attempt of a townie to win Merridy) and marry, settling on Alex's family farm, where they eke out a modest living. Although the novel's sympathies lie with Alex, it is his ambitious wife who drives the novel. Their struggle to conceive leads to Merridy's unlikely return to her studies and, eventually, to rescuing a mysterious, troubled child from a shipwrecked boat. Trouble, as ever, is in the offing, and when it arrives, Shakespeare allows it to run its natural course without dipping into melodrama. Expertly crafted, the novel illuminates love's craggy depths. (July)
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Review

“Shakespeare, a master craftsman, pulls the narrative string and his beguiling story is complete, as intricate and miraculous as a ship in a bottle.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review )

“Gripping...subtle but arresting.” (The Times (London) )

“His mastery shines through his characters...” (Time Out Chicago )

“I read it with complete absorption, wholly immersed in its world. It has a palpability and veracity which is quite mesmerising. A tremendous piece of work.” (William Boyd, award-winning author of The Blue Afternoon and Restless )

“Masterful...The delicate account of [two lovers’] coming together and drifting apart...A work of rare beauty. ” (Financial Times )

“…quiet and moving…trouble, as ever, is in the offing, and when it arrives, Shakespeare allows it to run its natural course without dipping into melodrama. Expertly crafted, the novel illuminates love’s craggy depths.” (Publishers Weekly )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 402 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061474703
• ISBN-13: 978-0061474705
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "You'd better start living. We're dead an awfully long time.", July 31, 2008

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Secrets of the Sea: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

(4.5 stars) Set on the remote southeast coast of Tasmania, the isolated island at the southernmost tip of Australia, Nicholas Shakespeare's latest novel examines the lives of Alex and Merridy Dove as they try to create satisfying lives, cope with traumatic childhood memories, and ultimately decide that "[We'd] better start living. We're dead an awfully long time." Wellington Point, the fictional town in which they live on Tasmania's southeast coast, faces Oyster Bay, a battered shoreline open to ferocious gales coming from the nearest land mass to the south--Antarctica--a place where only the hardiest and most independent souls manage to wrest a living from the land or the sea.

Alex and Merridy Dove have both faced tragedy. Alex lost both of his parents when he was only eleven, after which he was sent to England. Returning twelve years later, he meets and falls in love with Merridy, whose much-adored brother vanished when he was seven and she was five. Though she does not love Alex when they are married, she believes that she will learn to love him, and they look forward to having a family and living on the farm.

Shakespeare, who lives in Tasmania for four months a year, creates a vibrant picture of life at Wellington Point, and of the connections the inhabitants forge with each other and with the land and the sea. Moving back and forth in time, the novel provides the individual backgrounds of all the characters, their courtships and love affairs, their hopes for the future, and their personal interests. As Alex, the realist-farmer, and his wife, the believer in dreams, await the arrival of children who do not arrive, their lives and their marriage are tested.

The leisurely pace of this seemingly domestic novel quickens with the arrival of Kish, a teenage orphan whom Alex and Merridy rescue from a ferocious storm. Kish is part of a program to give young boys in trouble a chance to learn from their experiences on a three-month sail around the island. Merridy and Alex give Kish a place to stay and a job, each of them trying to force Kish into their memories of the past and their dreams for the future. Ultimately, all three of them feel betrayed.

The novel, which has been rooted in reality for about three quarters of its length, changes dramatically with the arrival of Kish, as various characters begin to experience illusions and see ghosts of the past. The line between reality and fantasy blurs and is complicated by the characters' failure to communicate, so that they often misinterpret what they "see." The surges of the sea sometimes parallel the characters' surges of passion, and the sea's "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" is sometimes matched by the characters' separations, emotional and physical. Ultimately, all the loose ends get tied up, but this is sometimes done on the basis of coincidence, and the gothic change from pure realism to a mixture of realism and fantasy may annoy some readers. The characters are sympathetically drawn, however, and the reader who loves intimate family sagas and depictions of unusual places will be captivated by this unusual and well-written novel. n Mary Whipple

Snowleg
The Dancer Upstairs: A Novel
In Tasmania

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant Valley, January 12, 2009

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets of the Sea: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

The small Town small island is wonderfully evoked by Nicholas Shakespeare by using snippets from the local storekeepers news letters and the whole book gives you a feel of being part of this Tasmanian community.
The story is a gentle tale of life in Wellington Point;Alex Dove's return to his parents farm, his marriage to Merridy and the life they build together with the help of an Oyster farm.
The book engages and holds your interest without ever challenging although it does have the faintest hint of Patrick White about it in the way it portrays the life and lives of the community it is set.
A pleasant book to read.