The Night Ship

Based on a true story, an epic historical novel from the award-winning author of Things in Jars that illuminates the lives of two characters: a girl shipwrecked on an island off Western Australia and, three hundred years later, a boy finding a home with his grandfather on the very same island.

One shipwreck.

Two misfits.

Three centuries apart.

1629: A newly orphaned girl named Mayken is bound for the Dutch East Indies on the Batavia, one of the greatest ships of the Dutch Golden Age. Curious and mischievous, Mayken spends the long journey going on misadventures above and below the deck, searching for a mythical monster. But the true monsters might be closer than she thinks.

1989: A lonely boy named Gil, who, after the death of his mother, a taciturn fisherman, off the coast of Western Australia among the members of the seasonal fishing community where his late mother once lived. There, on the tiny reef-shrouded island, he discovers the story of an infamous shipwreck...

With her trademark storytelling that has been praised as "thrilling, mysterious, twisted, but more than anything, beautifully written" (Graham Norton, New York Times bestselling author), Jess Kidd weaves a charming and unputdaownable take of friendship and sacrifice, brutality and forgiveness.