Archipelago: A Novel
Roffey follows her acclaimed The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2011) with this stunning adventure story. A year after a flood destroys Gavin Weald’s small house in Trinidad and sweeps away his infant son, his wife has retreated deep into her grief, and his six-year-old daughter, Océan, still has nightmares. Gavin decides to drop out for a while. So he quits his job, settles his “sleeping wife” with her mother, takes Océan, and embarks on a journey he’s long dreamed of to the Galápagos Islands. Accompanied by the beloved family dog, father and daughter board Gavin’s old 28-foot sloop and head across the Caribbean and through the archipelago of Los Roques to Bonaire, Aruba, and eventually the Galápagos. After countless adventures, Gavin feels recharged, and Océan, too, is blossoming and gaining an acute awareness of the natural world. But their odyssey has its drawbacks, and an injury suffered by Océan, the loss of an old friend, and the many miles and days spent alone at sea begin to take their toll. After nearly four months, the travelers return, concluding this poignant, beautifully rendered saga of one family’s struggle to survive a tragic loss. --Deborah Donovan