2 of 2 copies available
“Absolute aces...Quinn’s imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold.” —The New York Times
“Utterly heartbreaking and joyous.” —Jo Baker, author of Longbourn
One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.
As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France—a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 4, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593627754
- File size: 529547 KB
- Duration: 18:23:13
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from August 29, 2022
The emotional upheaval of the interwar years in England is dramatized afresh in Quinn’s dazzling and imaginative debut. Cristabel Seagrave’s mother dies in childbirth, and Cristabel’s father, Jasper, who remarries when she is three, dies soon after. This leaves Cristabel to be raised by her disinterested stepmother, Rosalind, who then marries Cristabel’s aviation-obsessed uncle Willoughby, Jasper’s brother. In 1928, when Cristabel is 12, she discovers a dead whale washed up on the beach adjoining the decaying Seagrave estate. She turns the whale’s rib cage into the proscenium for a theatre, where she ambitiously stages The Iliad and The Tempest with the help of her half sister Flossie, cousin Digby, loyal kitchen maid Maudie Kitkat, and Taras Kovalsky, a Russian artist. Fourteen years later, Cristabel and Digby’s experiences at playacting will come in handy when they are both parachuted into France on separate espionage missions to help the Resistance during WWII. But will they survive to see the renaissance of the Whalebone Theatre? Thorny, idiosyncratic Cristabel is a formidable first among equals in this expansive cast of memorable eccentrics. Peacetime whimsy gracefully segues into scenes of unbearable tension and heart-wrenching suspense as Cristabel boldly infiltrates Paris on the eve of its liberation. Combining elements of I Capture the Castle, Brideshead Revisited, and Charlotte Gray, this is a reading experience to be long cherished. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Assoc. -
Olivia Vinall narrates this debut audiobook set in the pre-war English countryside and in WWII Paris. Months after a dead whale washes up on the beach by their home, the children of Chilcombe Manor transform its skeleton into a theater. The theater's annual performances draw increasingly larger audiences until WWII halts the productions. Now adults, the siblings find themselves putting their acting skills to the ultimate test as British spies. As the story weaves among various points of view, Vinall's narration brings its many characters to life. Deft skills with character voices and emotions further pull the listener in. The audiobook is so compelling that listeners won't even notice its length. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
June 10, 2024
When a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel, everybody knows that the creature's corpse belongs to the king. However, Cristabel claims the beast as her own; years later, she transforms the whale's bones into a theater with help from her half-sister, her cousin, a kitchen maid, and a Russian artist. Under the proscenium of the Whalebone Theatre, this unlikely troupe stages annual productions, flourishing and attracting increasingly larger audiences. Performances grind to a halt with the onset of World War II, and soon after Cristabel and her cousin Digby are called upon to act as spies for the British government. Evocative of I Capture the Castle and Charlotte Gray, Quinn's debut novel is ambitious historical fiction brilliantly taking shape as an ode to the escapist power of books, music, and theater. Olivia Vinall's narration breathes life into a cast of eccentric characters, each performed with a measured delivery and emotional identity that helps listeners differentiate the shifting points of view. VERDICT Quinn's debut will cater to spy-novel and WWII-fiction fans and leave listeners eager to see what else the author has in store.--Andy Myers
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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