Ghost Sea

By Ferenc Máté

Book Overview

A spellbinding tale of the sea: love, murder, and mysticism: At the turn of the century, a Kwakiutl warrior from British Columbia's wild northern islands raids an artifact collector's yacht to reclaim stolen sacred masks. He takes the collector's wife, Kate, as hostage on his 200-mile canoe voyage home. The collector hires Dugger, a coastal trader living on the edges of the law, to give chase in his ketch with the collector as passenger, but Dugger's financial salvation comes at a terrible price, for he is Kate's secret lover. Day and night Dugger sails the uncharted islands, through raging currents and ship-swallowing whirlpools, and the account of his pursuit is interwoven with Kate's harrowing and erotically charged journey.

Based on a true story, this novel reaches its thrilling climax at the last secret, hallucinatory potlatch of the ancient Kwakiutl culture, where the history of a doomed people is melded with the fury of three hearts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0920256511
• ISBN13: 9780920256510
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Albatross
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

good sailing yarn

I greatly enjoyed this book, both for its accuracy as a sailing story, and for the historical look at the native american customs before smallpox and other diseases wiped them out. Anyone who sails should buy this, and then save it for a rainy night when you are sleeping onboard.

A Roiling Sea Tale

I loved the book. It's not only a terrific nautical adventure, but it's also filled with historical and cultural details that are obviously keenly observed on the part of author Máté. And does he know how to tell a tall tale! I look forward to the next book in what will easily become a must-read and well-loved series.

Excellent Literary Experience

Ghost Sea was as well written as any fiction I have read in a long time. The author is obviously experienced in the history of the northwest and it's indigenous and now extinct people and their customs. For a sailing novel their is a lot of sailing; unusual in my experience. It was a difficult book to put down;a suspenseful, riveting stoy. Would make a fantastic movie!

Read This Book Outloud!

Ghost Sea is a great book just waiting to be read aloud. The chapters are a perfect length for oral presentation. The epitome of traditional storytelling, this book combines the sea tale, love story and ghost story with Pacific Northwest Native American history.

THIS IS REALLY " JOSEPH CONRAD MEETS ELMORE LEONARD"

I was really quite apprehensive reading the rave reviews in the news but this really is an epic adventure that beautifully captures the last days of the age of sail and the fall of the 8,000 year-old Kwakiutl culture, one of the most mysterious and exotic of sea people. It's also a sizzling love story whose characters are so wonderful you hate to part company. The writing is beautiful, the romance intriguing and erotic, the friendship enviable, the rendition of a time in history remarkable. (But I do like Nello a lot more than Captain Dugger). Thank God this is just the first of a series. I can hardly wait to see what happens to these two friends in the next one. I completely concurr with the journalist who wrote it's "so action-packed it makes the voyage of Odysseus seem like a pleasure jaunt." If you read only one book this summer, this should be it.