The Plover: A Novel
A jack of all  literary trades, Doyle (Leaping: Revelations & Epiphanies, 2013) augments his impressive oeuvre with this whimsical dreamscape of a nautical adventure about desolation and friendship. To escape his haunting loneliness, Declan O Donnell sets out on the high seas with no intention of returning to his Oregon home. In fact, he has no intentions at all, except to wander “west and then west” to distance himself from his troubling past. With little company besides a copy of conservative orator Edmund Burke’s speeches and the occasional gull, Declan drifts into the Pacific void to discover not solitude but unlikely companionship. Reluctantly agreeing to aid his recently widowed friend, Piko, and his disabled daughter, Declan finds himself extemporizing fatherhood and pursuing pirates when Piko gets kidnapped. As the adventure escalates, so does the number of his shipmates, humans and sea creatures alike. In stylized prose with frequent nods to Coleridge, Melville, and Stevenson, Doyle’s surreal world is alive with vivid characters, mysterious birds, and lyrical philosophy about contentment. A joyous journey of discovery. --Jonathan Fullmer