Book Review: Mrs Jewell and the wreck of the General Grant

From the first page, Mrs Jewell and the wreck of the General Grant has the reader biting their nails. We know this is a shipwreck story, and here we have our Mrs Grant stitching gold into her dresses and her husband’s trousers. You can only imagine what could happen if they are flung overboard to sink or swim.

It is 1866, and Mary is newly married to the miner Joseph Jewell - they’d met at the Melbourne hotel where Mary had found work. Now, they’re on their way back to England, planning to cash in their gold to buy a farm. While Joseph works his passage on the General Grant, Mary gets to know the other women passengers, making friends and generally being helpful.

When the ship founders on rocks, sucked into a cave which destroys the mast, there is nothing for it but to man the lifeboats. But it is dark and the crew are hampered by the swell. Finally, only fifteen of all those on board make it to land. And this is where the real hardship begins. We are there with Mary in freezing temperatures, little food and the struggle to find shelter.

Another eighteen months follow on the Auckland Islands – an inhospitable place 360 km south of New Zealand, and the survivors become inured to their situation. There is a continual need to hunt seals for food, clothing and warmth, over time building better huts and finding a more varied food supply.

Mary, the only woman among the group, is constantly aware of her situation, as her husband becomes lost to her in depression and she attracts unwanted attention from another survivor. It’s a difficult situation for one so young in any situation, but here there is no escape. Mary has her own demons too.

“I had also felt a responsibility for those deaths. If I had stepped up more boldly, if I had leapt cleanly into the boat, if I had called out for the women to follow me, if I had kept the Italian man’s baby in my arms, if I had held the hand of Mary Oat. All of that horror had filled every thought in my head until there was not space for anything else."

Cristina Sanders brings the story to life in a way that puts you in Mary’s shoes and recreates an incredible tale of survival, but also adding the thoughts and emotions that round out the characters to make a vivid read. There are some intense scenes, the mental struggles of Mary and others along with the physical hardships. Through it all Mary is an engaging narrator for whom you feel empathy – not a character you are ever likely to forget.

Mrs Jewell and the wreck of the General Grant is Cristina Sanders' third novel, following the best-selling Jerningham and Storylines-award winning YA novel Displaced. Mrs Jewell is among four books shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize at this year’s Ockham Awards. The award ceremony that announces the winner will take place in May.

Catalogue link: Mrs Jewell and the wreck of the General Grant

20 March 2023

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