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A saga of adventure, history and romance... ...sweeping from England and the Arctic whale fishery to the New Worlds - the South Pacific and the wild, lawless shores of pre-colonial New Zealand. In this turbulent land at the end of the earth, Joss - a whaler with a checkered past and an opportunistic vision - hews for himself "a place to stand" and forms enduring alliances with Maori chiefs. He strides through the pages of this historical novel larger than life, yet always human, in a restless search to satisfy his lonely soul. |
In the end it became very simple. Joss refused to apologise, and his uncle washed his hands of his ungrateful nephew and ordered him to quit the house. Just before dawn, with only the damp clothes that he wore, and with his mother's reproaches ringing in his ears, he made for the Old Harbour.
The mate of a ship signing on last-minute crew for the northern whaling season looked doubtfully at the young man with his splendid though water-stained waistcoat and his rumpled linen, and a fresh welt across his cheek. "Been to sea before?"
Joss shook his head.
The mate rubbed his chin, his gaze taking in the lad's height and the breadth of his shoulders before falling to the hands clutching the creased jacket. He frowned, shrugged, and dipped a pen into the ink pot on the small table in front of him. "What name?"
"Jos--" For a moment he experienced a panic sense of loss. The surname he had used all his life, the name by which his mother was known, was a fiction adopted for decency's sake. Did he, then, have a right to the name of Scalby? Revulsion rose at the thought of using his uncle's patronym. But the mate had the pen poised over the paper in front of him and now demanded "Initial?"
Joss hesitated, and the man glanced up and repeated impatiently, "Initial?"
"J," he stammered, realising the mistake, and watched the pen write a curled initial J. followed by "Joss".
"Age?"
Lying without scruple, he said, "Twenty-one."
The man gave him a sceptical look. "Can you sign your name? Otherwise put your mark here." He pushed the paper across the table, his finger on the spot, and Joss took up the pen, dipped it in the watery black ink and firmly signed, "J. Joss".
Reviews:
For New Zealand readers it is not an exotic backdrop but the stuff of present and painful debate...daring indeed. This book does not let you lose sight of the other side of anything... The value that emerges strongly is of accommodation, of learning to "translate" the other person (or the other race) and see them whole. (Dominion)
...a turbulent tale set in a turbulent era; the historical detail is convincing; the drama intense. (Southern Skies)
...a truly rousing epic read! (Next Magazine)
Enthralling work...an epic rather than a love story, though a thread of romance is so skilfully woven through the story lovers of love stories will be teased to read on...an inspiring tale. (Northern Advocate)
...this strong [historical] background makes the whole book come to life. (Whangarei Report
