Isabelle the Navigator
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Isabelle Airly’s father is dead by his own hand, after a term in prison for insurance fraud. Her boyfriend of four years has lost his life in a motorcycle accident. And inside, Isabelle is lost at sea, struggling to stay afloat, and wondering how a woman who has lost so much can begin to find herself again.
As Isabelle tries to pick up the pieces after the loss of the two men she loved most, she begins to uncover the truth about her father, his arrest, and his descent into madness—as well as the secrets her mother and uncle have kept hidden.
Poet and novelist Luke Davies, author of the award-winning international bestseller Candy, charts Isabelle’s course with flowing, lyrical prose and profound emotional honesty. He takes us a journey not only across countries and continents, but through an interior life tempest-tossed by grief, as Isabelle attempts to understand the power of love, the pain of its loss, and the tragedies of her family’s past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Isabelle the Navigator, Australian poet and novelist Luke Davies (Candy) examines family secrets and tragedies through the eyes of his female protagonist. The novel begins shortly after the death of Isabelle Airly's father, Tom. A doctor, he had spent four years in prison for insurance fraud; from the time of his release until his suicide at the age of 56, he fell further out of touch with reality. Part of his despair was caused by the affair his wife, Tess, had with his brother, Dan, when Isabelle was a little girl. At 22, Isabelle meets the love of her life, Matt, who is five years her senior and works as a deckhand and later as a band manager. Their passionate affair lasts for a few years, until Matt is killed in a motorcycle accident. Then Isabelle moves to Paris, has an affair with a Portuguese woman named Laura and generally tries to make sense of her life. Although the language is frequently overcooked, Davies tells Isabelle's story with sensitivity and passion.
