The Night Ship

In Kidd’s (Things in Jars) epic historical novel, the year 1629 finds nine-year-old Mayken, whose mother has just died, being sent to the Dutch Indies on the ill-fated Batavia, one of the premier ships of the Dutch Golden Age, which will soon go down in a horrific shipwreck. Mayken spends her time at sea getting into misadventures and searching the ship for a monster she has been told lives below deck. In 1989, Gil, who like Mayken has just lost his mother, is sent to live on the west coast of Australia. There he spends his days searching for the site of the Batavia shipwreck. Kidd’s novel follows the intertwined stories of the two children who are separated by 400 years but are each subjected to trauma and horror. Fleur De Wit and Adam Fitzgerald switch off narrating the shifting points of view, sweeping listeners into Mayken’s seafaring escapades and Gil’s heartbreaking search to belong. Listeners will be captivated and will want to learn more about the aftermath of the real Batavia disaster.