When the Night Comes

Summary (from the publisher): From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Past the Shallows comes a remarkable new novel that weaves together the lives of a young girl from Tasmania and a sailor in search of meaning, whose brief encounter leaves a lasting impact on both.

Isla is a lonely girl who moves to Hobart with her mother and brother to try and better their lives. It's not really working until they meet Bo, a crewman on an Antarctic supply ship, the Nella Dan, who shares stories about his adventures with them;his travels, bird watching, home in Denmark, and life on board the ship. Isla is struggling to learn what truly matters and who to trust; and this modern Viking is searching to understand his past and find a place in this world for himself. Though their time together is short, it's enough to change the course of both their lives. And what they give each other might mean they can both eventually find their way home.

Praised for writing that is vivid, distinct, and exquisite in its simplicity and eloquence, Favel Parrett delivers a stunningly beautiful novel about the bond forged between two unlikely and unforgettable strangers.

 

Review: I won an advance uncorrected proof copy of this book as a giveaway on Goodreads.

 

Set in the late 1980s and told in alternating perspectives, this novel tells the story of 13 year old Isla, who has moved with her mother and brother to Hobart, Tasmania, and who befriend Bo, a crewman on the Antarctic supply ship the Nella Dan. Their brief friendship in a difficult point in their lives has lasting meaning for both individuals.

 

There is something achingly sad and wistful about Isla's point of view. Very early in the novel, it becomes clear that her parents' marriage has ended unhappily and her mother is fleeing with her children to a new and unknown home to escape the past. In many ways, Isla and her brother seem alone on the island: "Battery Point, where the houses were old and solid like tombstones, and there were never any people on the streets or in the front gardens. There were never any people anywhere. Just my brother and me, walking fast, always looking behind us" (57). It also quickly becomes clear that Isla has an unhappy - or at least distant - relationship with her father. For example, Isla's stilted phone box conversations with her father every other week reveal the strained relationship: "We'd both squeeze in and shut the folding glass door behind us, and I'd have butterflies in my stomach and maybe my brother would too. Maybe I was scared and maybe he was too" (53).

 

Bo seems to bring a measure of comfort and care to Isla's life that she doesn't receive from either parent. He helps her remove cactus thorns from her leg when she falls playing, cooks dinner with her, and writes her letters from his ship. Their relationship is innocent and nothing but nurturing and kind on the part of Bo. This is in sharp contrast to her father, who slams plates on the floor, yells at their mother, and is the cause of a serious scar on Isla's ankle.

 

The chapters from Bo's perspective are almost all from his times at sea and are full of the icy cold, cooking meals for the crew, and the rocking of the ship. Bo rarely refers to Isla and her family, but reminisces about his father and grandmother, and about friends he has lost.

 

This novel is full of beautiful, poignant language. However, I was not overly surprised to read in the afterward that some chapters have previously been published as short stories. In many ways, the novel feels like a compilation of isolated scenes that have been threaded together. In particular, I wish that Bo's connection or draw to Isla and her family had been fleshed out more. At heart this novel felt like the story of two isolated and adrift individuals who connect briefly before drifting on in their separate directions. It was interesting to read that the Nella Dan really existed and "spent twenty-six years in service for the Australian government and she sailed longer and farther than any other ship in history in the Antarctic region" (236).

 

Stars: 3