Fortune Pearl

After a young woman’s husband vanishes while aboard a magical ocean liner,  she embarks on a journey to find both him and herself throughout the early chaos of World War II in Britain, in this elegiac new novel from the author of The White Octopus Hotel.

Estelle Lewis, a parson's daughter from rural England, has always longed to escape the traditional life that seems to be her fate. So when Ross Walker, a daring airman, appears, it seems a dream come true. For he offers her not only love and excitement, but also the sky. In the cockpit of his plane, with England laid out like a tapestry below her, Estelle, for the first time, feels possibility and freedom.

But tragedy strikes during Estelle and Ross’s honeymoon aboard the Fortune Pearl—a magnificent art-deco ocean liner that is making its maiden voyage from England to New York. On the last night of the voyage, her husband vanishes. No one has any memories of Ross ever existing, and Estelle’s is told she boarded alone, with a passport showing only her maiden name.

What follows are Estelle’s attempts to return to both the Fortune Pearl and her husband—a journey of self-discovery that will take her through some of the grimmest, and yet also most transformative, parts of the war, and teach her the true meaning of courage.