The Collector of Lost Things - Softcover

Page, Jeremy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1605986410 ISBN 13: 9781605986418

Publisher: Pegasus Books, 2014

Synopsis

By critics' favorite Jeremy Page, an arctic adventure story fueled by obsession, passion, and gothic influence

The year is 1845 and young researcher Eliot Saxby is paid to go on an expedition to the Arctic in the hope of finding remains of the by-now-extinct Great Auk, a large flightless bird of mythical status.

Eliot joins a hunting ship, but the crew and the passengers are not what they seem. Caught in the web of relationships on board, Eliot struggles to understand the motivations of the sociopathic Captain Sykes; the silent First Mate, French; the flamboyant laudanum-addicted Bletchley; and most importantly of all, Bletchley’s beautiful but strange “cousin” Clara.

As the ship moves further and further into the wilds of the Arctic Sea, Eliot clings to what he believes in, desperate to save Clara but irrevocably drawn back into a past that haunts him―and a present that confronts him with a myriad of dangers.

About this title

About the Author:

Jeremy Page, the author of Salt and Sea Change, works as a script editor and writer for FilmFour and the BBC. He lives in London.

From Booklist:

Page’s maritime adventure pays tribute, in equal parts, to both philosophy and the environment. In 1845, with rumors of a great auk sighting swirling about, naturalist Eliot Saxby sets sail on the North Atlantic to discover if there is any remaining evidence of the once plentiful species. A flightless bird prized for its luxurious feathers, the great auk was hunted into extinction by the mid-nineteenth century. Proving to be much more than strictly a scientific journey, Saxby’s voyage is a multilayered, often tortured exploration of the inner workings of one man’s soul and spirit as he grapples with his own past, his weirdly creepy shipmates, and man’s violent encroachment on the natural world. In addition to the haunting, gothic-tinged narrative arc, recommend this for Page’s plaintive descriptions of the starkly bleak and beautiful Arctic. --Margaret Flanagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1605986410
• ISBN 13: 9781605986418
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384