The Sea Captain's Wife

This is another book I won from Library Thing's Early Readers program! It comes out this Tuesday, so the copy I got was an uncorrected proof, but that was OK with me because this was one seriously unputdownable book, people!

Written by Canada's Beth Powning, whom I had never heard of before this book, The Sea Captain's wife tells the story of Azuba Bradstock, wife of Captain Nathaniel Bradstock of the merchant ship, Traveller. Set in the early 1860s, we see Azuba struggle with being stuck at home alone with her young daughter, Carrie, while her husband sails the seas for extended periods of time moving cargo all across the planet. Sometimes he is gone for well over a year, and when he gets home his child doesn't know him and the specter of his next voyage looms over Azuba and Nathaniel's relationship. Azuba wants nothing more to accompany her husband on his journeys, but sailing back then was a man's world and it was uncommon - but not unheard of - for women and families to accompany their men aboard the ships. After suffering a miscarriage while Nathaniel is away, Azuba strikes up an innocent and platonic relationship with the local minister, but this causes a bit of a scandal, and when Nathaniel returns, his relationship with Azuba is damaged. It is only then that he decides to take Azuba and their daughter with them aboard Traveller to wherever it might go, despite the dangers and hardships.

From there, we get a great story of both great adventure on the high seas and the story of a marriage a woman's coming to terms with her place in her husband's life and her own role in her family and in society. There is an excellent balance in this book between teeth-gritting action and the self-examination of a woman desperately trying to find herself and attain some equality in her marriage, at a time when such a thing wasn't the norm.

Not only is this book set in the Victorian era, where women were still second-class citizens, but it is also a time when sailing was on the verge of great change itself. Powning's attention to historical detail as well as the details of the seafaring life bring this book alive. Azuba is an unforgettable character as she makes both heartbreaking decisions and suffers the consequences of those decisions.

I totally recommend this book. I spent a whole day completely absorbed in it, and when it was over, I was kind of sad it had come to an end. I will definitely be on the lookout for some of Powning's previous books.