The Ghost Ship: An Epic Historical Novel from the Number One Bestselling Author (The Joubert Family Chronicles)

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Greg and I first met during a joint school production of Offenbach. I was leading the orchestra down on the floor and Greg was one of the leads up on the stage. He was a year above me, which was very exciting at the time, and I can remember thinking he was jolly good-looking. I liked the two main characters and was invested in their romance. For that reason I was tempted to rate the story higher, as Louise and Gilles were amazing. I suspect if they'd appeared in a story not connected with any previous impressions, I'd have been invested in the whole tale more. Unfortunately, because I went into this book with the previous ones in mind, approach the book with the right expectations and suspend disbelief. If I'd known what kind of story I was getting into, I would have taken the multiple accidental murders, unlikely high-seas ventures and diverse slave-hunters at face value and just accepted them. Because I was anticipating a more grounded narrative, I was constantly thinking about the story as a story rather than being immersed in it. Schip der Zielen is geschreven in de kenmerkende beeldende stijl van Kate Mosse. Uit haar vorig werk weten we dat ze een uitgebreide kennis heeft over Zuid-Frankrijk, Katharen en Hugenoten. Dit verhaal speelt zich echter af in een andere regio en dit merk je. Ik miste de passie van de auteur die in het vorige werk van Mosse van elke pagina spatte. De omschrijving van de omgeving en de geschiedenis is hier veel vlakker omschreven, niettegenstaande de uitgebreide research van de auteur. At the heart of it is a woman in a man’s world, trying to live her life as she sees fit without being beholden to men who have all the power.

Louise Reydon-Joubert is de kleindochter van Minou Joubert en heeft zowel Hugenoten als katholieke achtergrond. Ze is de eigenaar van het schip d’Oude Maen en moet door verscheidene omstandigheden Nederland zo snel mogelijk verlaten, samen met haar gezel Gilles.Feeling every one of her sixty-eight years, she raised herself on one elbow, and gazed at Piet sleeping beside her. His beloved features, grown white with age, were as familiar to her as her own. Against all odds, they had been by one another’s side for nearly fifty years. Together they had faced grief and despair, they had lost their way and been reconciled once more. Blessed with three children and three grandchildren, they had suffered, but kept going. Companions-in-arms, they had stood firm against the vicissitudes of life, the evils of war and the deaths of those they loved. They were old, but they had somehow kept living when those around them stumbled and fell. They had survived.

Writer Kate Mosse, founder of the Women's Prize for Fiction, and actor Stanley Tucci attend the 2023 winner's ceremony at Bedford Square Gardens, London on June 14th. Photograph: Ian West/PA Wire. The coronation was only a day away. Pennants flew blue, red and gold, geraniums blazed in window boxes. Royalists pinned flags to their balconies and boasted of how they had been invited to be in the congregation at the Basilica of Saint Denis tomorrow. After ten years of marriage to the King of France, Marie de’ Medici was finally to be crowned queen in the presence of her husband and the eight-year-old Dauphin. Though the Italian queen was not popular, in taverns, landlords were offering drinks named in her honour – the ‘Marie Punch’, the ‘Medici Malmsey’ and the ‘ grosse banquière’. All along the rue Saint-Honoré, the boulangeries were filled with Florentine biscotti and brioches, pâte feuilletée filled with cream and plaits of bread in the shape of a crown.The history, politics, and romance of this books gives the reader a great ay to learn about this very complex religious and political conflict in such an interesting way from the viewpoint of women was a great way to dive into it headfirst. That rare thing, a novel with vast scope and ambition, brilliantly achieved, but also deeply personal, finely detailed and nuanced. I was utterly immersed in this spell-binding story