Kate Mosse is an award-winning novelist, playwright, essayist and non-fiction writer. Her ten novels and short-story collections, include Number One bestselling series The Joubert Family Chronicles, following The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears, which have together sold more than 400,000 copies. The Ghost Ship is the third book in the series.
Her most recent feminist non-fiction book, Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World (October 2022), is now the basis for a one-woman theatre show, touring UK venues from 28 February-12 April 2023, in which Mosse will celebrate the lives of extraordinary, brilliant, trail-blazing and heroic women from throughout history whose names deserve to be better known.
Kate Mosse’s new novel is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a man’s world, of vengeance and breathtaking peril on the High Seas, of long-buried family secrets and a love story spanning three generations. The Ghost Ship will be launched in hardback, audio and eBook by Mantle (Pan Macmillan) in the UK and by Minotaur in the US on 6 July 2023. Follow @katemosse on Twitter
About the book
The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel silently rides the swell. She is known only as the Ghost Ship. For these past months, her crew has fought to liberate those enslaved by corsairs. But the two bravest mariners on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher: if captured, they will be hanged for their alleged crimes…
Review
I couldn't help but think that perhaps one of the most poignant parts of this book is in fact the beginning. Not because it's the end of the path, which introduces the journey to the end, but rather the statement about what has driven Louise towards the journey and how society reacts towards those choices. In the end it all comes down to be being a woman. The child being determined to take a place predetermined for men and whilst doing so having to make decisions that make men fear her instead of perceiving her as the weakest link.
The double-edged sword of course is society wanting to punish her for said role, her actions and equally for having the gall to be something other than what society expects of a woman, hence the dress being forced upon her. Her entire story is a fight against preconceptions, misogyny and an attempt to make tiny tears in the well established fabric of the patriarchy.
Despite this being the third book in the Joubert Family Chronicles, it can absolutely be read as a standalone novel. I think that is one of the trademarks of this author, that each book - even in a series - becomes its own microcosm.
The author takes historical fiction and embeds the written tales and myths of history - the result is a fascinating tale of a woman with the heart of the sea. Her determination to taste the salt, conquer the waves and be acknowledge as part of her family legacy.. It's a great read.
Buy The Ghost Ship at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Mantle; pub date 6 July 2023. Buy at Amazon com.
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