Voyage to the North Star - Tapa dura

Like E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, this novel is cut boldly from the cloth of America: an exhilarating tale of hard times, a dream, and extraordinary Arctic adventure.

America is marching headlong into the Depression. Unemployment is rife, Reds are protesting in New York's streets, but on the waterfront Prohibition has failed to water down the beer. The rich are meanwhile getting richer, and the poor only more destitute, in this powerfully wrought novel that crosses the paths of two men from opposite ends of the social spectrum. While the industrialist and sometime big-game hunter Carl Schenck has amassed a fortune fabulous enough to expect the world to cater to his whims, seaman Will Boden has lost his boat, his wife, and his reputation. Second chances don't come easily to a captain who's abandoned his own ship - until Schenck's determination to organize an Arctic safari presents Boden with the opportunity to do what no seasoned seaman would: to navigate a luxuriously appointed but ill-equipped yacht, the Lodestar, through perilous Polar waters. Its adventure as harrowing as a tale by Jack London, its vision as haunting as Joseph Conrad's, this remarkable novel pitches the master and crew of the Lodestar into the grip of treacherous Arctic seas and moral disaster. Praise for Sea Change by Peter Nichols: "Marvelous . . . In his understated telling of the story, he never seeks your sympathy. He just breaks your heart." - New York Times Book Review "A heartbreaking and harrowing sea tale" - Los Angeles Times