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  • Published: 1 August 2011
  • ISBN: 9781407074481
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

Secrets of the Sea




A breathtaking new tale from Nicholas Shakespeare, who The Times called 'One of our best and truest novelists'.

Following the death of his parents in a car crash, eleven-year-old Alex Dove is torn from his life on a remote farm in Tasmania and sent to school in England. When he returns to Australia twelve years later, the timeless beauty of the land and his encounter with a young woman whose own life has been marked by tragedy, persuade him to stay. They marry, and he finds himself drawn into the eccentric, often hilarious dynamics of island life.
Longing for children, the couple open their home to a disquieting guest, a teenage castaway, whose presence in their home begins to unravel their tenuously forged happiness.

  • Published: 1 August 2011
  • ISBN: 9781407074481
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 496

About the author

Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in the Far East and South America. His novels have been translated into twenty languages. They include The Vision Of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, Snowleg and The Dancer Upstairs, which was chosen by the American Libraries Association in 1997 as the year's best novel, and in 2001 was made into a film of the same name by John Malkovich. Recent books include Secrets of the Sea and Priscilla. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married with two sons and divides his time between Oxford and Tasmania.

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Praise for Secrets of the Sea

Carefully measured storytelling in this enveloping tale of life's small treasures lost and found

Sunday Times

Beautifully done. It reads absolutely true

Scotsman

An impressive, workmanlike, poignant piece of work: the barren husband and wife in the foreground; a wealth of vividly drawn minor characters behind them; and, framing the whole picture, the great brooding sea, giver and taker of life.

Sunday Telegraph

Masterful...a work of rare beauty

Financial Times

A richly evocative tale

Daily Mail

Subtle but arresting...an exhiliarating saga

The Times