An arctic adventure story fueled by obsession, passion, and gothic influence, The Collector of Lost Things is a gripping literary suspense novel.
The worlds of ocean and ice were meeting in a frontier of rage, as if the earth had torn in two along this line. This was a place, if there ever was a place, where you could disappear...
The year is 1845, and young researcher Eliot Saxby is paid to go on an expedition to the Arctic in the hope of finding the 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 myriad dangers.
About the Author :
Jeremy Page's first novel, Salt, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the Jelf First Novel Award. He grew up in North Norfolk and has worked as a scriptwriter and editor for Film4 and the BBC.
Michael Healy has appeared off Broadway and on national television, most notably on Saturday Night Live for three years, as well as in several national commercials. He continues to hone his craft in Rhode Island, where he has won awards for acting. His audiobook recordings include Mr. Midshipman Easy by Frederick Marryat, The Collector of Lost Things by Jeremy Page, and The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Review :
"Moody and affecting prose...Page's descriptions of being under sail, and of the harsh and beautiful setting of the Arctic regions are gorgeous...The tension between Saxby's starkly defined moral sensibilities and the commercial motivations of the volatile Captain Sykes and his crew gives way to the narrator's own interior struggles, which are more complex than they first appear to be."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Page shapes a fascinating historical narrative and has moving insights into our sometimes-dubious relationship to the natural world."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "
"Page's maritime adventure pays tribute, in equal parts, to both philosophy and the environment...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."
-- "Booklist"
