The Western Limit of the World
A Novel
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
David Masiel’s first novel, 2182 Kilohertz, was one of the most greatly praised books of 2002. A riveting adventure of an unlikely hero’s quest for personal redemption in frigid arctic waters, it earned its author comparisons to such giants of nautical fiction as Melville and Conrad. Now Masiel more than meets the promise of his debut with a harrowing odyssey of love and betrayal on the high seas–and in the shadowy corners of the human heart.
At fifty-nine, Harold Snow has seen his share of death. His baptism of fire came on his twenty-first birthday, on a navy ship in the Coral Sea, when a Japanese kamikaze pilot slammed into the deck. Years later, in the aftermath of a typhoon in the Bay of Bengal, he lay awake on a ship surrounded by thousands of drowned corpses and listened to the sharks feed.
Now, serving as boatswain aboard the Tarshish, a decrepit tanker whose papers are as suspect as its seaworthiness, a weary Snow feels death creeping closer than ever. It’s there in the lethal cargo of volatile chemicals the ship carries in its leaky hold. It stares back from the brutal eyes of the first mate, Bracelin, with whom Snow has embarked on a desperate and highly illegal venture to steal a black-market fortune. It’s in the dangerous welter of emotions he feels for Beth, the beautiful half-English, half-Liberian crewmate lusted after by every other male onboard. It clings to young George Maciel, grandson of Snow’s oldest friend, a seminary dropout whose disastrous arrival earns him a reputation as a Jonah. And it’s there in the memory of Van Sickle, a dead man who haunts Snow with visions of his own dark past.
Snow’s risky plans begin to go awry when the Tarshish is refused entry to the Bay of San Francisco. Forced to return to the open Pacific, Snow and Bracelin embark on a scattershot voyage of shoestring improvisation that will take the disintegrating hulk–sailing under forged papers and a new name–from South America to Africa. Along the way they will encounter hurricanes, crooked customs officials, and tropical ports seething with vice and revolution.
This outer voyage is mirrored by a dark and twisted inner journey that will strip Snow down to his bare essence as a man. And as George and Beth flaunt their involvement, and Bracelin embraces cold-blooded murder, Snow will face a stark choice between life and death, damnation and redemption, at the western limit of the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Most of this nautical action-adventure takes place aboard the Elisabeth, n e the Tarshish, a chemical tanker facing an imminent date with the junkyard. The ship has been commandeered by seaman Harold Snow and first mate Charlie Bracelin to make a highly profitable sale of goods to a West African concern. Snow is a grizzled World War II veteran haunted by memories of his sinful sea-faring life. He is in love with Elisabeth, a headstrong woman 30 years his junior for whom he has renamed the ship. But the crew is joined by a young newcomer who strikes up a relationship with Elisabeth, complicating Snow's personal and professional affairs. While Masiel's book is fast-paced, it occasionally sacrifices coherence for effect. Basic information, like the nature of the impending sale, or Snow's backstory, is left vague, sometimes making for a frustrating read. But Snow and his fellow sailors are born wheeler-dealers, taking calamity with a grain of salt and calmly proceeding to plan B. Masiel does succeed in conveying the danger and adventure of the contemporary nautical life, with all its romance and unpredictability.