British travel writer Harding (Tranquebar: A Season in South India) makes her fiction debut with this slim, shimmering historical. In 1616, the whaler Heartsease sets out from England, bound for the Greenland coast. During the voyage, the experienced, much-respected Thomas Cave strikes up a friendship with young Thomas Goodlard, the crew's least-experienced member, who is another Suffolk native. As winter approaches, the crew, having loaded up on whale oil and other tradestuffs, prepares to leave, but a friendly disagreement among them about whether a human being had ever wintered on the Svalbard coast darkens and escalates. In a charged moment, Thomas Cave bets 100 that he can survive the winter alone on an uninhabited island. They leave him, with plenty of provisions, to return the following spring. This cold-weather Robinson Crusoe tale (minus Friday) unfolds with spare grace, along with Thomas Cave's past, which includes a lost wife and lost son. In a free and direct style that touches on period dialect but is never heavy-handed (and that is bookended by two first-person remembrances from Thomas Goodlard dated 1640), Harding probes Cave's solitude and his responses to a landscape that, in a heartbeat, can be unrelentingly bleak or dazzling. It's a simple story of spiritual purification, and it is handled beautifully throughout. (Feb.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
The Solitude of Thomas Cave
Narrated by John Lee
Georgina HardingUnabridged — 5 hours, 44 minutes
The Solitude of Thomas Cave
Narrated by John Lee
Georgina HardingUnabridged — 5 hours, 44 minutes
Overview
In 1616, as the last warm days dwindle in the north Atlantic, the men on an English whaling ship prepare to head home. But there is one exception among them: the quiet, headstrong Thomas Cave. Cave has made a bet with the rest of the crew that he can spend a winter on this Arctic island-alone.
His shipmates sail away, the days shorten, and the cold weather moves in. Thomas Cave faces months of darkness, ice, and blizzards with only his rations, shelter, and a journal-a record in case he doesn't survive to tell his story. But nothing so threatens the sailor as his own mind, haunted by the remembrances of another life and a lost love. From his post at the edge of the known world, Cave sees his own past and begins to reflect on man's relationship with God and the wilderness.
Editorial Reviews
In this first novel from British writer Harding (Tranquebar: A Season in South India), Thomas Cave, a solitary 17th-century sailor, elects to spend the winter alone in the Arctic instead of returning to England with his whaling ship. The three-part novel opens with an account of events leading up to Thomas's decision to stay, moves into the story of his winter, and concludes years later as one of his crewmates endeavors to find out what happened to him. In the middle section, which shifts between narrative and excerpts from Thomas's journal, there is a wonderful juxtaposition between the descriptions of what it takes to survive this inhospitable environment and Thomas's memories of and hallucinations about his beloved Johanne. Harding is adept in her descriptions of place and the impact it can have. Unfortunately, while the prelude creates context, the third section is redundant, diminishing rather than enhancing the story. This novel will have limited appeal as it competes with other works of similar genre; recommended for larger collections.-Caroline M. Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School
Readers who grew up enjoying Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs will appreciate this compelling survival story. Thomas Cave, a 17th-century English whaler, accepts a dare from his shipmates to spend the winter alone in Greenland. The novel is divided into three parts, beginning with a first-person narrative by Tom Goodlard, a teenager and Cave's only friend on the whaling ship Heartsease . An omniscient narrator takes over in part two, combining a suspenseful story of physical survival with flashbacks to Cave's family life in Copenhagen. While he struggles to endure the cold, dark days and record the practicalities of his survival in a journal, Cave is haunted by memories and mirages of his wife and her ill-fated pregnancy. He finally realizes he must face his grief before he can overcome his despair. Goodlard narrates the final portion of the book, relating the Heartsease 's return to Greenland and reunion with Thomas Cave. The Arctic setting is integral to the story, and Harding's clear and evocative prose allows readers to see the beauty of a stark winter there, yet feel the pain of an isolated existence in frigid conditions. This first novel will spark discussion along several themes: the relationship between humans and the natural world, human reactions to tragedy and loss, and the nature of personal relationships. Although Cave survives the physical trial, this is not a "happily ever after" book, and the ending is thought-provoking and realistic.
—Sondra VanderPloegCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Mythic account of a man transformed by a year spent alone in the Arctic. British writer Harding's U.S. debut is a brief, spare historical parable of personal endurance and enlightenment, set in a bleak Eden. Cave, a self-contained, experienced sailor aboard a 1616 whaling vessel bound for Greenland, is challenged by the aggressive ship's mate to stay behind at the whaling station. He accepts the bet and watches the ship leave. A gifted hunter, he makes preparations for the long, dark, winter months to come by preserving reindeer meat for food and gathering and drying grasses to eat to ward off scurvy. He has a fiddle with him but resists playing, fearing the music will unleash memories of his Danish wife Johanne, who died with their baby after five terrible days in labor. Cave, nonetheless, experiences hallucinations. He also kills polar bears, keeps a log, survives food poisoning and, later, a bad fall. In the spring the animals return in abundance, and he takes particular comfort in the seals, who sport human expressions. When the ship returns, the sailors find Cave alive but very thin and otherworldly, seemingly possessed of the power to soothe troubled minds. Returning to England, he becomes a figure of legend. Some suspect him of witchcraft, but Cave knows better: His year of solitude has taught him that "there are no devils out there. No devils in the ice or the snow or the rocks, none but those inside us, those we bring." His visionary pronouncements presage not only psychology but also the ecological disaster to come. The heavy concluding message slightly spoils an otherwise carefully told tale of reason versus superstition and imminent earthly despoliation.
A bewitching ghost story, beautifully told. The Solitude of Thomas Cave is written with the clarity of poetry, and the simple weight of a parable. I loved this book.” —Katie Hickman, author of the bestselling Daughters of Britannia
“Readers who grew up enjoying Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs will appreciate this compelling survival story….This first novel will spark discussion along several themes: the relationship between humans and the natural world, human reactions to tragedy and loss, and the nature of personal relationships.” —School Library Journal Reviews
From the moment that contemplative symphonic music introduces John Lee’s full, rounded voice, we know we’re in for a treat with this remarkable first novel by a British nonfiction writer. The story transports us to the Arctic in the 1600s. Thomas Cave, crew member on an English whaling ship, bets that he can survive the dark, frigid winter alone and live to greet the ship upon its return the following summer. In the ensuing months, Cave battles to preserve his body and his mind. John Lee offers a deeply felt, beautifully paced reading of the enigmatic Cave, enlivened by colorful interpretations of Cave’s shipmates and the people who inhabit his Arctic dreams. This is a mesmerizing tale, entrancingly read. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169897500 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2007 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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