RaveThe Historical Novel SocietyIt is rare to find a dual-narrative novel in which both strands of the narrative are equally compelling. Often the present-day strand exists as a rather pallid framework for the epic narrative from the past. The Sea Gate is a remarkable exception. Each time the narrative switched from present to past or vice versa, it left me on a cliff edge, reluctant to leave the one sequence while yet eager to join the other ... Each strand of the narrative is both a love story and a thriller in its own right. Rebecca is named after the title character in Daphne Du Maurier’s novel, and Johnson’s novel echoes Du Maurier in its strong Cornish sense of place as well as the way it builds the feeling of tension and foreboding. Dual narrative at its very best.
Marco Balzano, trans by Jill Foulston
PositiveHistorical Novel Society... unadorned prose. Even though we know that the village is doomed, the story keeps its tension to the end, and we share in the villagers’ loss. This is very much a book about a place, and if you have never visited the Alto-Adige you will want to after reading this.
James Meek
PositiveThe Historical Novel SocietyThe first challenge is that the book is written in Mediaeval English ... With perseverance it becomes easier to read. Is it worth it? The characters are authentic, and it is refreshing for a novel about mediaeval England to recognise the diversity of language. The story is, however, quite silly by modern standards, full of cross-dressing, mistaken identities and extraordinary encounters; a mediaeval pastiche, not a modern novel in a mediaeval setting ... This is a clever, challenging book about life and death, love and war, language and belief in the 14th century. Fans of the Middle Ages will enjoy the challenge.
