by Amity Gaige
Reviewed by Linda:
I tumbled into this amazing novel of a family on a year-long voyage through the Caribbean on a newly acquired sailboat, and never wanted to leave. The characters were so real and so sympathetic: Juliet, the mother of two young children agonizing over a stalled-out English Ph.D. dissertation; Michael, a joyful dreamer who believes he and his family can achieve a conservative vision of utter self-sufficiency at sea; and Sybil, age 7, and George, age 2, who revel in becoming feral when civilization is left behind. When faced with the sheer freedom and horrendous dangers of life on a small boat, husband and wife draw on totally different sets of values about what truly matters. Soon their marriage is on the brink. Oh, and Michael is keeping a big secret from his wife.