When Elmhirst comes close to breaking the fourth wall, that contribute to the pleasure of this exciting book. You know as a reader that you are in very capable hands ... A fascinating narrative ... She doles out the adventures, such as they were, and tells them vividly ... So much more than a shipwreck tale. It’s a story of love and strength, a portrait of a marriage that — for all its oddities — is a true partnership.
It’s billed as a love story; I don’t know if it is. Whatever held the Baileys together, whatever kept them alive, was stranger and plainer than love, harder to come by, and even harder to explain ... Has an admirably light touch; her short sentences contain something of the Baileys’ emotionlessness, their desolation, silence, and the slow putrefaction of their faculties. Her eye for detail also brings alive the surreal sensory fusillade of the couple’s improbable rescue ... I badly wanted to know how their marriage fared in those years and the ones beyond ... I don't understand.
This beautifully conceived book by Sophie Elmhirst, her first, retells the Baileys’ story not just as that extraordinary tale of endurance, but as a singular and universal kind of love story ... Interesting ... The emotional acuity of the book lies as much in those passages of high drama as in the before and the after of them ... The result is a compelling book about a shipwreck, but also as thoughtful a tale about marriage, for better and worse, as you are likely to read.
May be based on real events, but it has the feel of fiction – all the better to convey the thoughts, fears and coping strategies of the pair as they fight for survival. Elmhirst finds rich source material in Maralyn’s diaries ... Astonishing.
