Friday, April 12, 2024

The Titanic Survivors Book Club offers a character-rich meditation on love, loss, and second chances

After you’ve narrowly avoided death in a notoriously tragic shipwreck, how do you approach your remaining days? For the memorable personalities in Schaffert’s (The Perfume Thief, 2021) exquisite novel, their chance survival encourages them to pursue their desires, but what if these yearnings conflict or remain unrequited?

Having opened a Parisian bookshop after his secret library of controversial volumes got him replaced as the Titanic’s librarian, or so he believes, Yorick convenes a book club for fellow eccentrics who also missed boarding the fatal voyage. While Yorick falls for Haze, an impoverished photographer, Haze grows romantically obsessed with part-Japanese candy heiress Zinnia.

Relations among this trio of beloved friends become complicated after Yorick reluctantly begins a Cyrano de Bergerac-style correspondence to Zinnia under Haze’s name. Then the Great War disrupts everyone’s lives.

Schaffert writes stylish, intelligent fiction that casts new light on familiar settings, and his appreciation for lush details feels so very Parisian. This isn’t a standard cozy novel about book clubs but rather an elegantly moody take on love, literature, and the indelible connections they create.

The Titanic Survivors Book Club (what a terrific concept!) was published by Doubleday on April 2. I wrote this review for the March 1st issue of Booklist.  If you've read Schaffert's novels before, you'll know they're focused on language, lush descriptions, and mood, and populated by interesting, offbeat characters. This is the third novel I've read of his, including The Swan Gondola and The Perfume Thief.

6 comments:

  1. Interesting... while it sounds like a beautifully written book, the concept is a bit... strange, and probably too much focused on romance for my taste.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is an unusual premise, I agree. Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
  2. I am not familiar with this author but this sounds like something I would enjoy. I have always enjoyed the story of Harvard's Widener Library, funds donated by his grieving mother after he went down on the Titanic. Urban legend has it that is why there is a swimming test for freshmen but no one ever summoned me to it so I suppose it fell by the wayside over the years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did I not know that the Widener Library (a place I'm familiar with) was named after a Titanic passenger? Thanks for that information!

      Delete
  3. This certainly sounds like a really interesting read!

    Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.

    ReplyDelete