Another Patti Callahan book!

 My latest read...

An enjoyable audio book, which focused on two time periods intertwined throughout the book, the 1830s and the 2000s. The early dates were about a sinking of a ship going from Savannah to Baltimore, off the coast of North Carolina. The later dates were when a museum in Savannah held an exhibit of the artifacts and how that exhibit was researched by three of the main characters.

I always enjoy historic novels...and this one did not disappoint. Callahan is an author I recently discovered in her two works about C. S. Lewis and his family. I wondered how she would work with this very different subject matter.

I have no way to critique the historic aspects of the story, which all seem quite realistic for the period, while slavery was still alive in the south, but soon to be outlawed. The extreme wealth as a result of slave labor that wasn't paid was obvious in the artifacts which were found from the recent discovery of the wreck of the ship in 100 feet of water off North Carolina's coast.

Calahan had already started to research the wreck and the families of Savannah when that discovery of the wreck occurred. In her author's notes following the narrative, she mentioned how that was an extra incentive factor. Much of the book is a discussion by the various characters, modern and ancient, in the questions of fate, luck, and major life changes that happen by catastrophic events.

The question of surviving the survival was a new one to me...that not just returning to one's old life happened, but that each person had major changes, including one young man who went from being a heroic caring person to becoming a slave trader known as the Red Devil.

Today's quote:

Sometimes you can't see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others. -Ellen DeGeneres, comedian, TV host, actor, and writer (b. 26 Jan 1958)