THE LIFEBOAT, by Charlotte Rogan

THE LIFEBOAT, by Charlotte Rogan

A Review

Grace Winter, age 22, is a survivor.  She is a survivor of a shipwreck and is on trial for murder.  While in prison awaiting trial she writes an account of the events leading to her arrest.  In the summer of 1914, she and her husband Henry, newlyweds, were crossing the Atlantic on an elegant ocean liner which sank after a mysterious explosion. Henry secured Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the occupants soon realize far exceeds its weight capacity. For any in the boat to live, some must die.  In the first days adrift in the ocean, a number of the men willingly sacrifice themselves for the good of the others.  But tensions among the survivors grow as day after day, rations become scarcer and conditions become more desperate.   One man is thrown overboard.  Once rescued, Grace and two other women are accused of his murder.

The story is told through Grace’s eyes.  Grace describes the way the survivors battle the elements, thirst, hunger and each other. Grace also recalls her past; her father’s financial ruin and suicide, the way she and Henry met and married, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found with him.  She is a complex character, by turns demure, conniving, astute and manipulative; but always pragmatic. 

THE LIFEBOAT is a well-written, intense page-turner.  It is a fast read and on the surface is a story about a group of people surviving a shipwreck, struggling in a lifeboat adrift in the ocean for fourteen days.  The book can be read on many levels however, and on slower contemplation is a complex study of human interactions, self-deception, survival strategies, power struggles and alliances, hard choices and moral dilemmas.

Members of our book club did not rate The Lifeboat, but all enjoyed it and we had a lively discussion.