The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Twenty-two year old Grace is on trial for her life, after surviving on a lifeboat in the Atlantic for three weeks.

Newly married and honey-mooning with her dashing husband Henry on the luxurious ocean liner, the Empress Alexandra, Grace was full of hope for their future when an explosion on board the ship forces Henry to place Grace on one of the few overcrowded lifeboats available.

Now being tried, along with two other women who had been on the lifeboat, Grace must explain how she survived on that boat when so many others didn’t.

Set in 1914, two years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Lifeboat is like Lord of the Flies with grown-ups. Like the characters in that classic, Grace and her fellow survivors start off with the common goal of survival but very quickly divide into factions.

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With barely enough room for all of them, and the lifeboat riding low in the water because of the weight, they resort to plotting and violence to stay alive and condemn others to death.

The most intriguing aspect of this novel is the fact that we are told the whole story through Grace’s eyes, and it quickly becomes apparent that she is no angel. But how far has she gone to save her own life?

This is a powerful debut novel; the descriptions of the days at sea are vivid and often harrowing, and Rogan’s depiction of the psychological deterioration on board the lifeboat is insightful and raw.