Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter - Lizzie Pook

Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter

By: Lizzie Pook

Paperback | 13 June 2023

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For readers of The Light Between Oceans and The Island of Sea Women, a "sensitive and compassionate" (The New York Times Book Review) feminist adventure story set against the backdrop of the dangerous pearl diving industry in 19th-century Western Australia, about a young English woman who sets off to uncover the truth about the disappearance of her eccentric father.

Western Australia, 1886. After months at sea, a slow boat makes its passage from London to the shores of Bannin Bay. From the deck, young Eliza Brightwell and her family eye their strange, new home. Here is an unforgiving land where fortune sits patiently at the bottom of the ocean, waiting to be claimed by those brave enough to venture into its depths. An ocean where pearl shells bloom to the size of soup plates, where men are coaxed into unthinkable places and unspeakable acts by the promise of unimaginable riches.

Then years later, the pearl-diving boat captained by Eliza's eccentric father returns after months at sea-without Eliza's father on it. Whispers from townsfolk point to mutiny or murder. Headstrong Eliza knows it's up to her to discover who, or what, is really responsible.

As she searches for the truth, Eliza discovers that beneath the glamourous veneer of the pearling industry, lies a dark underbelly of sweltering, stinking decay. The sun-scorched streets of Bannin Bay, a place she once thought she knew so well, are teeming with corruption, prejudice, and blackmail. Just how far is Eliza willing to push herself in order to solve the mystery of her missing father? And what family secrets will come to haunt her along the way?

An "extraordinarily vivid" (Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan) feminist adventure story based on Lizzie Pook's deep research into the pearling industry and the era of British colonial rule in Australia, Moonlight and the Pearler's Daughter is ultimately about the lengths one woman will travel to save her family.
Industry Reviews
"A sensitive and compassionate book, admirable in its engaging synthesis of multiple strands of history. It is alive to the complexity of how things must have been, and its consideration of race, gender and sexuality invigorates the era with a freshness that feels organic.... At its heart, this is a story about family - whether it can survive in an inhospitable environment - and whether it is possible to be a good person in a corrupted world."-New York Times Book Review

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