The Lifeboat

A Novel

By: Charlotte Rogan

Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.

In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband, Henry, across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.

As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found. Will she pay any price to keep it?

The Lifeboat is a pause-resistant novel of hard choices and survival, narrated by a woman as unforgettable and complex as the events she describes.

©2012 Charlotte Rogan (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

" The Lifeboat traps the reader in a story that is exciting at the literal level and brutally moving at the existential: I read it in one go." (Emma Donoghue, author of Room)

"What a splendid book.... I can't imagine any reader who looks at the opening pages wanting to put the book down.... It's so refreshing to read a book that is ambitious and yet not tricksy, where the author seems to be in command of her material and really on top of her game. It's beautifully controlled and totally believable." (Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall)

" The Lifeboat is a spellbinding and beautifully written novel, one that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. This is storytelling at its best, and I was completely absorbed from beginning to end." (Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods, July, July)

This could have been so much better

I can only surmise the author was independently wealthy before this book was written, or it would have been completely overhauled before its publication. While very well written, nothing really happens that we as the audience particularly care about. A mysterious explosion on a transatlantic ship, stolen jewels and hidden gold! A murder on an overcrowded lifeboat filled with peril!

All of this comes up in this book, but not a single thing is addressed with any satisfaction. The main character, Grace is supposed to be the typical unreliable narrator, but character development is so weak throughout everyone in this book that Grace comes off as having the personality of a shoe instead of unhinged, calculating, devious or even strong. Instead of suspense or mystery we get a platform for the author to explain her politics. Women were unequal to men in 1914! (gasp) Women couldn't vote or even serve on juries! (I'm shocked) Men wrote laws that governed women! (oh the injustice)

What saves this book is the pretty excellent writing, poor character development aside. But I was disappointed that what was described as a mystery thriller was actually a diatribe on gender politics of the early 20th century. And being an educated person with average brain function, I sort of already knew that it wasn't kosher.

will keep you wondering whats next

Would you consider the audio edition of The Lifeboat to be better than the print version?

I think so, it was well read

What other book might you compare The Lifeboat to and why?

I think it was like itself and quite confronting

Did Rebecca Gibel do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

yes. It would have been quite difficult, quite a few characters

Any additional comments?

The Characters in the story were suitably different and that would have been a challenge. The descriptions were great and I had a mental picture of everyone on the boat.

I'd rather drown, thanks!

This book was so over-hyped that I expected nothing short of a masterpiece. Not quite. I never really liked the main character, it never felt like a turn of the century setting, and I couldn't wait for them to be rescued - so the book would end! Skip it.

Perilous but no conflict

First, I loved the premise and the idea. Always great to delve into the minds of people who have survived such a horrible experience. Wonderful idea to have Grace time-skipping over her trial for murder and her wet ankles. I couldn't wait to read this book.
The book inspired me to write my own novel with some surprises and more exciting conflict than I found in this book. The passengers were throwing people off the lifeboat! That indeed should have caused some visceral emotions among the survivors, but not it did not, not really. I felt that the characters' reactions were, "oh gosh, there goes another one, but it wasn't me so I'm good."

Also, I would have made someone on the lifeboat the culprit. Why did the mysterious ocean liner explosion happen? No back story about the ocean liner. Perhaps the reader was supposed to assume all the Titanic background applied. But better: maybe Grace was REALLY devious and evil, as well as being just a run-of-the-mill un-unhinged woman of her time. She should have been in cahoots with some unknown person to destroy lives for her own self-centered goals. Now there's a survival story!

The book could have been set in an upscale parlor instead of a lifeboat. There was so little conflict or character development. The only thing I learned about Marianne was that she was a big whiner. I would have added 100 pages to learn more about the passengers and how they ended up on a lifeboat in the middle of nowhere. There was no explanation about how they found themselves in this dire situation.

The so-called nefarious seaman who was aboard didn't seem that horrible. He was the only character who could have and should have, been the hero! It wasn't our girl, Grace. No hero in this book where one would have been welcome.

Good first effort. I am certainly not the writer that Ms. Rogan is.

A True Disappointment

The Lifeboat surely ranks as one of the least enjoyable books I have ever read. The story is disjointed and hard to follow and the characters are poorly drawn. The narration is unremarkable. Nothing positive to say about this book. Don't waste your time.

What was the point?

What aspect of Rebecca Gibel’s performance would you have changed?

I can't really pinpoint what about her reading failed to connect, but I never felt that she really inhabited any of the characters. You could feel the acting in the reading. This could be at least partially due to the shallowness of the character development by the author.

Any additional comments?

While I had hoped for a more intense story about the dynamics of people unknown to each other being placed in peril on a lifeboat, this turned out to be a strangely dispassionate narrative from only one person's perspective. Because that person was selfishly passive about her circumstances, and so easily manipulated if she thought there was something in it for her, we learn almost nothing about the other passengers. Everything is filtered through Grace's shifting perceptions. I agree with the previous reviewer that Grace is a seriously flawed person, and that usually offers literary opportunity for growth. But Grace's flaws were with her before the lifeboat, remained with her throughout the time on the sea, throughout her trial and she came out the other side essentially unchanged. There is a lot of discussion of the ethics and morality of lifeboat survival, mixed with strong undercurrents of the gender politics of a century ago. None of this gave life to any of the characters and I found no one to root for or have any serious curiousity about. The book ended with a shrug.

Book club read....kinda boring

I am only halfway through and will save the rest for a rainy day. The story drags on and on. I may be influenced from others who finished the book in my group. Overall, we were not so impressed. May edit this review in future, if I ever finish.

Had to struggle to finish.

It was an okay story, but a repetitious plot with an unconvincing end. Reader was good though! I had to struggle to finish and kept skipping ahead.

interesting concept, unconventional style

This is a "concept" novel that is part survival story and part legal drama with some elements of mystery thrown in. It would be hard to call this a fully developed novel in the classical literary sense. It is lacking too many elements such as well-developed characters and a consistent underlying theme.

There are many characters, all of whom are one dimensional, and some add little to the story. I didn't find it easy to relate to the protaganist (narrator). The story is at its best as a survival story. Outside of that part of the story, the pacing is rather inconsistent. I listened to parts of the last 1/4 of the book on 1.5X speed.

The narration was fine, though nothing special. I couldn't rate it higher than 2 or 3 stars overall, simply based on the material.

Lots of hype that didn't deliver

What didn???t you like about Rebecca Gibel???s performance?

She had a somewhat annoying voice and her delivery didn't add to the story at all.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment. There had been lots of press hype on this book, so i was looking forward to it. The story was quite disjointed and the frequent time shifts didn't help that at all. I kept waiting for background information on the characters, the ship, etc., but all I got were a lot of dangling ends that never got tied up....one or two of those are OK, but a long series of them left me "at sea". I never really developed an affinity to any of the people on the life boat.....they were so one dimensional and I really didn't care who went overboard when. It could have been a fantastic story, but as it was it was just mediocre.