The Lifeboat [Kindle Edition]

This is such a good premise for a book. A ship sinks following a fire on board, and 39 disparate passengers find themselves squashed on board a lifeboat clearly not suitable for holding that many people. From the very first pages, the people on the lifeboat find themselves facing acute moral dilemmas. Do they help the desperate people in the sea, thereby threatening their own survival and the meagre supplies of food and water on the lifeboat? Or do they beat them away with the oars?

I don't know what I'd do in that situation, but this book certainly makes you think. The story is told through the eyes of a young bride, now widow, Grace, one of those on the lifeboat. We know she survived because, at the beginning, she is facing trial in her home country of America along with two other passengers, for murder. You have to read the book to find out how, and why, Grace came to be where she is.

This is an 'unputdownable' book. I raced to the end to find out what had happened but... I feel it is not as good as it should be. Plenty of hints are dropped about what might have caused the explosion that sank the ship in the first place, including dodgy dealings and the potential involvement of Grace's husband, but this storyline is never made clear, which is frustrating. And because none of the passengers in the lifeboat is particularly likeable, it is hard to empathise with them. It's almost a brilliant book. It has all the right ingredients, but the result is not nearly as good as it could have been.

Two years after the loss of Titanic, and just after the outbreak of WWI, the ocean liner Empress Alexandra sinks. There is an explosion and a fire on board, leading to panic and the launching of just over half the available lifeboats. Grace Winter, newly married to Henry, is placed by her husband aboard Lifeboat 14, one of the last to get away safely. At first, it seems as though their only problem is to get the lifeboat as far away from the ship as possible. However, having escaped the initial danger, those on board - thirty nine in all, including thirty one women and one child - have to face the harsh reality that the rescue they are awaiting may not be coming.

When we meet Grace, a most resourceful and realistic heroine, she is in prison on trial for her life. Her lawyers suggest she try to recreate the events of those twenty one days after the ship went down, and her diary is what we read, as the story of what happened and why she is on trial unfolds. This is an excellent, atmospheric and well written novel, which draws you in and refuses to let you stop reading. Grace tells her story simply and well, feeling no doubt in her actions, although we readers are often unsure she should be so certain of her belief. In fact, Grace's status seems as unreliable and shifting as the sea the boat floats precariously on.

As Grace narrates her story, she says, "the bare bones of our natures were showing," and it is hard to disagree with her. Yet, it is also impossible to judge how people could, or would, react in such a desperate situation. Certainly, the situation in the Lifeboat leads to those on board exhibiting the best and worst that humanity has to offer - from disagreements, discord and jealousy to self sacrifice. If this novel does not win awards, I will be stunned. This is an excellent book and would be ideal for a reading group looking for an intelligent and thought provoking novel to discuss.

Ostensibly the story of a shipwreck, an imperilled lifeboat journey and a murder trial, this book positively heaves with submerged sub-plots.

It is two years after the sinking of the Titanic. Another transatlantic liner has sunk. In the prologue, we learn that Grace Winter, Mrs Grant and Hannah have survived the shipwreck as well as a treacherous journey in an over-crowded lifeboat. They are now in Boston on trial for their lives but it's each woman for herself. In a bid to aid her defence, Grace is asked by her lawyer to write an account of her time adrift in the Atlantic. Virtually the rest of the book is Grace's side of the story which makes clear that for any to live, some must die. This could also be said for the trial. "You survived out there in the boat, now you have to survive in here. And don't make the mistake of thinking the situation is any different now." And it is this situation, of course, that makes her such a chillingly unreliable narrator.

Grace is a completely fascinating and convincing character, though perhaps some of the lesser characters in this book could have been more clearly delineated. There are quotable, thought-provoking lines on more or less every page: "The bare bones of our natures were showing. None of us were worth a spit. We were stripped of all decency. I couldn't see that there was anything good or noble left once food and shelter were taken away." This truly is what lies beneath.

A front cover quote says that this book "...rivets the reader's attention...and seethes with layered ambiguity." It is from Hilary Mantel, a writer who a thing or two about layered ambiguity. The women on the lifeboat not only have to battle the deadliest element of them all, water. But also the authority of the men in the boat (in particular, their leader, Mr Hardie) in an era when to be male automatically bestowed a mandate of power. My inner feminist murmurs: "Would it be so very different if one were stuck on a lifeboat today?"

4.5 stars.