Charlotte Rogan

As the story begins, we find out that Grace Winter, 22, is on trial for murder along with two other women who were among the survivors of a shipwreck and three-week ordeal aboard a lifeboat. Grace’s attorneys have asked her to write up her recollections of the experience, which comprise most of the remainder of the book.

As we read through what happened, we realize something is very, very wrong, but figuring out what really happened is difficult – a matter that will no doubt have book show more clubs arguing for a long time!

Grace was on the ocean liner Empress Alexandra with her new husband Henry. They were returning from Europe because of the outbreak of World War I. Following an explosion, the ship sank, and Grace and 38 others (but not Henry) were put into a lifeboat with an ostensible capacity for 40 but which actually was meant for fewer persons. One ship’s officer, Mr. Hardie, is also on board and takes charge of the group. But as days go by without rescue, and food and water become scarce, Mr. Hardie’s authority is soon challenged by two strong women, Ursula Grant and Hannah West, and the boat divides into factions. Measures taken for survival became more extreme:

"The bare bones of our natures were showing. None of us were worth a pit. We were stripped of all decency. I couldn’t see that there was anything good or noble left once food and shelter were taken away.”

Since the book begins with the trial, we know that at least these three women were eventually rescued, but we don’t know until almost the end how this happened and if anyone else survived.

Discussion: This is one seriously creepy story. Besides the unpleasantness that happens as each person’s survival becomes dependent on fewer other competitors for food and water, there is something quite unsettling about Grace. We find out a bit more about it in the Epilogue, but for the most part, we have a narrator who, as in the book Liar by Justine Larbalestier, seems to be extremely manipulative and deceptive. I couldn't wait to find others who had read the book to talk about it!

Evaluation: This is a fascinating study in human behavior under the most challenging circumstances, told by a narrator who may be an innocent young girl, or may be a psychopath. Puzzling out who Grace really is and what actually happened will keep readers turning the pages of this clever book! show less

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan is a book that falls neatly into my wheelhouse, it is a tale of survival, it has a leading character who is not always to be believed, and it certainly takes the reader to the dark side. The story of a group of people adrift on the Atlantic Ocean with little food or water, deprived of all creature comforts and fearing for their lives strips them of their humanity and exposes their raw inner natures.

The book opens with Grace Winter on trial with two other women show more for an undisclosed crime after they had been rescued from a lifeboat. We learn Graces’ version of the time spent on the lifeboat as she puts together a diary at the request of her lawyers but ultimately the book raises more questions than it answers. Grace’s account is spine-chilling, tense, and frightening as she details how power and control were being sought and alliances formed among the 39 people on the lifeboat.. Exposure and deprivation only added to the unreliability of the story.

I was totally caught up in this story with it’s morally suspect characters, harsh environment and it’s dark mystery. Is Grace manipulative and selfish or is she yet another victim who is being blamed for being a woman who survives. The Lifeboat is an excellent story and one that makes you wonder how you would fair in the same situation. show less

[based on a review copy from Netgalley]
Review originally posted here: http://irisonbooks.com/2012/04/14/the-lifeboat-by-charlotte-rogan/

In the summer of 1914, an ocean liner carrying newlyweds Grace and Henry across the Atlantic to meet Henry’s family, sinks. Grace manages to get on a lifeboat with the help of Henry. Soon, the rescued find out that although the lifeboats are said to have a capacity of 40, it cannot hold the 38 people on there. Here, Grace faces another three weeks of show more survival, as for any of the survivors to live, some must die.

At the beginning of the book, the reader finds out that Grace, along with two other women that were on the lifeboat, is on trial for murder on account of the weeks she spent on the lifeboat. The story of Grace’s life on the boat is the account written from her personal memories that is to be used as evidence in court.

And so, The Lifeboat is not just the story of the horror of a shipwreck, life on a lifeboat, loss, and the length humans will go to to survive, although that is very much part of the novel. Instead, it is the added layer of Grace’s narration that makes this book so fascinating. Grace is not exactly a trustworthy or likeable character. She falls firmly in the category of unreliable narrators, which the reader finds out throughout the novel, as she leaves out details, rewrites previously mentioned stories, and repeatedly infers discussions about the nature of memories and remembrance. As a reader, you constantly need to readjust your image of Grace and the events on the lifeboat: is she an innocent girl or a master manipulator, and what exactly happened? All of it makes that reading The Lifeboat is a fascinating experience, but also a little creepy at times.

Another element that I enjoyed is that the story of the power struggle between Mrs Grant and Mr Hardie (a ship’s crewman) mirrors women’s struggle for emancipation. Grace is caught up in the middle of this power struggle, in which her decision to cast in her lot with one or the other might directly affect her chance of survival. It is interesting that Mrs Grant and Hannah hold on to their belief of equal rights for woman, to such an extent that they may diminish their chances of surviving the trial. Grace is more calculating. She seems to realise that while circumstances on the lifeboat, with a higher ratio of women compared to men, and its isolatedness from the world outside, may have favoured Mrs Grant’s influence from time to time, back in the “real world”, it are men who judge whether they are guilty or not. So Grace relents and wears feminine attire, while Hannah insists on wearing trousers, unwilling to give in to convention. But this does not mean that Grace is not aware of what she is doing:

“From the beginning, the press and others were more sympathetic to me than they were to Mrs. Grant and Hannah, who early on pointed this out, saying, ‘Let’s be honest, Grace. You’re just innocent enough to get away with it.’ Whenever anyone tells you a thing like that, you’re bound to try to defend yourself, and I responded that she and Mrs. Grant were the ones who were playing to an audience by insisting on going so far against the grain of the public’s expectations. But eventually I had the realization that we all had to decide when to fight convention and when to accede to it, and in that, the three of us were not so different after all.”

“Sometimes I wonder if they would have been incarcerated if Mrs. Grant had been a man.”

Nor that she agrees with a subordinate position for women. She is aware that women’s chances of fair treatment are tied up with men’s expectations, and repeatedly reflects on her, and women’s, position throughout the story. Grace’s story, and the story of her fellow passengers on the lifeboat, is not just a story of how far humans are willing to go to survive, but it is also a story of survival as a woman in a world that is defined by men.

Highly recommended. show less

Book on CD narrated by Rebecca Gibbel
3.5***

In the summer of 1914, newly married Grace Winter and her husband Henry, set sail from London back to America. But after an explosion aboard ship, Grace is hurried aboard a lifeboat that is over capacity. As days go by with no sign of rescue it becomes clear that not all (if any) will survive. It comes down to a battle for leadership between the only able seaman aboard and a strong-willed matron skilled at persuasion.

Grace is not a completely show more reliable narrator. The majority of the story is told in flashback, as Grace is on trial for murder. At the suggestion of her attorneys, she recalls her experiences in the lifeboat, but she also reflects on how she met and married Henry.

Her observations about her fellow passengers are limited to a handful, mostly those of her class, save for the seaman, Mr Hardie. As their situation grows more dire, the survivors in the lifeboat are faced with decisions they never imagined having to make. There are times when I felt Grace was a weak woman content to let the wind blow her where it will. And other times when I felt she was manipulative and scheming. But then again, we have only Grace’s word for what happened. One thing is certain, though, Grace is a survivor.

Rebecca Gibbel does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and distinguishes the characters sufficiently to avoid confusion about who is speaking. show less