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The Night Ship

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The Night Ship

By: Jess Kidd
Narrated by: Fleur De Wit, Adam Fitzgerald
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About this listen

A BBC Two Between the Covers book club pick 1629.

Embarking on a journey in search of her father, a young girl called Mayken boards the Batavia, the most impressive sea vessel of the age. During the long voyage, this curious and resourceful child must find her place in the ship's busy world, and she soon uncovers shadowy secrets above and below deck. As tensions spiral, the fate of the ship and all on board becomes increasingly uncertain.

1989. Gil, a boy mourning the death of his mother, is placed in the care of his irritable and reclusive grandfather. Their home is a shack on a tiny fishing island off the Australian coast, notable only for its reefs and wrecked boats. This is no place for a teenager struggling with a dark past and Gil's actions soon get him noticed by the wrong people.

The Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human cruelty, fate and friendship, and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose fates are inextricably bound together.

©2022 Jess Kidd (P)2022 Canongate Books Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Fiction Transportation Scary Island

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Critic reviews

Weaves a spell around the reader, transporting them across centuries, between a doomed ship and a dying island. The result is a true work of magic, and one that will haunt me for years (V.E. SCHWAB, internationally bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)
Jess Kidd's stories are so magical, she should be a genre all to herself (JOANNA CANNON)
A masterclass in storytelling (KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE)
All stars
Most relevant  
that's is a great parallel between the factual shipwreck story and the fictional, more modern story. the two narrators were excellent and the format worked very well

Fascinating. I didn't want it to end

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Beautiful story. I love all of Jess Kidd's books, but The Night Ship is something special.

Wonderful story

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Through carefully weaving fact and fiction together Jess Kidd has created two parallel stories set centuries apart but each echoing the other. Couldn’t stop listening, I was completely hooked!

Beautifully Told!

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Love the accents. I never knew the story and it was very interesting. Sometimes the links between the parallel periods felt a bit laboured.

Beautifully read

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Well written story and excellent narrators - but I’m glad to be leaving the claustrophobic worlds of Gil and Mika…

Excellent but disturbing story

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Another Jess Kidd book that I've gone back to start to listen to again. Her story telling is enthralling and character rich. Narration worked well on the two time lines. Like other readers I too have been checking out the original historical material of the ship.

Fantastic

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I have visited the amazing replica of the Batavia in Lelystad in the Netherlands (well worth a visit) so found the historical detail particularly interesting. The more modern parallel of Gill’s life in the fishing community on the island worked well, and I thought the book was beautifully written and engaging. Narrations were both excellent too. A winner as far as I was concerned.

Fascinating evocation of life (and death) on a VOC ship

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This was a very different book for Jess Kidd. I loved the character of Mayken and the power Kidd gave her. The story of the Batavia is fascinating and you'll end up Googling it after you finish the book.

Fascinating historical novel

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I felt the book was a little bit rambly. The idea of the story was great and it’s based on a real shipwreck, just think the story could’ve been more engaging.

Could have been better

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This was an eye opening, vivid historical fiction, that uses the popular method of transitioning between two characters chapter by chapter. Although these characters lived 300 years apart, you did expect their lives to somehow converge in the end. But sometimes life just is. No dramatisation of these characters’ stories was necessary. Brilliantly read by both narrators.

Life just is

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