The Night Ship

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Storytelling is woven into THE NIGHT SHIP in various ways, including through folklore and family histories. What do you think the author is trying to achieve with these layers of storytelling? year-old Mayken, a dutch girl from an affluent family, boards the Batavia for a months-long journey to her new home in the Dutch East Indies. What she finds aboard is a world of wonder, not only begging for exploration but also a world that puts her life in danger.

Given that this book is based on real-life events that took place during the voyage of the Batavia (as we are reminded in the epilogue), what do you think we should take away from Mayken’s story? DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Canongate via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Night Ship by Jess Kidd for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions. Mayken loves the sailors instantly. The daring of them, their speed along the ropes, the heights they climb to!”T he Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human brutality, fate and friendship – and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose destinies are inextricably bound together. Pelgrom laughs. “When Imke dies, you can stay that way. We’ll shave your head and get you a beer ration.”

Mayken would like to watch to see if Stonecutter crushes any of the soldiers’ skulls but now the passengers must follow the boy sailor. Mayken’s nursemaid looks on with satisfaction. Imke revels in the trials of others with a pure and shameless joy. From her debut, Himself, Jess Kidd has been carving out a genre all her own, an intricate collage of folklore, modern gothic, ghost story, historical caper and magical realism. The Night Ship, her fourth novel, brings together many of these elements in the stories of two lonely, motherless children separated by three-and-a-half centuries. Pelgrom is to thank for the distraction of the listening hole. Him and his borrowed carpenter’s tool. Pelgrom the shipworm.There were words Mum said quietly and carefully because they were dangerous. Devil. Hangman. Tutankhamun. Cancer." You poked her.’ The nursemaid turns to the child. ‘What are you? A stoat? A rat? A puppy? Put your teeth away.’ A: Initially I intended to focus just on Mayken, but I realized that the Batavia’s story didn’t end with the death of her survivors. Archaeologists were still uncovering her secrets on land and sea. I became fascinated by the cray fishers who made Beacon Island their seasonal base and the families who would join them there at certain times of the year. I hoped that the dual narratives could show how much the Batavia story continues to have resonance today, how the past can inform the present. One of the major difficulties for me was how to frame a violent real-life story. Taking a child’s eye view allowed me to weave in an element of curiosity and playfulness. I wanted to show that in both times, the use of the imagination can be an act of survival for these children who find themselves in the gritty reality of an adult world. Pelgrom shrugs. Mayken tries to scratch under her cap, only her sleeves are too long. Pelgrom rolls them up. His smile is charming. The creativity is remarkable, the writing is beautifully descriptive and yet, I was a bit confused at times, and found myself rereading sections to fully understand the inferences within the story line. This felt like an intensely concentrated story and I didn't want to miss even the smallest detail of its uniqueness or the diversity of the characterizations. Believe me, there is no shortage of characters in this story and it is the author's keen writing ability that keeps them all weirdly different and distinguishable.