Before reading Jess Kidd’s enthralling story I hadn’t heard of the Batavia’s doomed maiden voyage from Holland to the then Dutch colony of Jakarta, a voyage which ended in her being shipwrecked of the coast of Western Australia, with surviving passengers and crew seeking refuge on the isolated, uninhabited Abrolhos Islands. As I didn’t want to risk spoiling my potential enjoyment of her story, I decided not to go online to discover the historical facts until I’d finished the book and, in view of how the author gradually reveals some of these facts in the unfolding story, I’m pleased that I did because I’m sure I’d otherwise have felt less affected by the drama of the unfolding, dual-timeline story. However, now that I have done some research of my own, I can appreciate even more the impressively skilful ways in which she incorporated her comprehensive research into her fictionalised story. Consequently, whether I was reading about Mayken’s experiences in 1628, or Gil’s in 1989, I felt convinced by her psychologically-convincing characterisations, as well as by her credible evocations of time and place.
Although in the earliest chapters I did find that some of the ‘echoed-across-centuries’ parallels felt rather too contrived, I soon came to admire how Kidd managed to convey the similarities, and the differences, between the two children and how they each responded to the challenges they faced as they tried to cope with their traumatic experiences. Their narrative voices felt so convincing that there were moments when I felt truly fearful for them when they faced very real dangers and brutality although, also like them, I took comfort from the occasions when they experienced unexpected kindness, support and empathy from some of the people in their lives and, in Gil’s case, his relationship with his pet tortoise, Enkidu.
I enjoyed how the author weaved the same themes, even if differently manifested, into the two timelines, including mourning the death of a parent; feelings of loss and abandonment; struggling to survive in harsh conditions and in insular communities, where to be different is to risk being attacked and/or excluded; dealing with prejudice and bigotry and finding friendship and comfort from unexpected sources. In trying to make sense of a confusing and frightening world children will often turn to fairy tales, will have nightmares about monsters and sometimes imagine being brave enough to vanquish them and I thought that the author’s portrayals of Mayken and Gil captured this in a convincing way. In Mayken’s world the personification of evil and threat came in the form of Bullebak, a water-dwelling, flesh-eating monster from Dutch folklore, whilst for Gil it was from Bunyip, the man-eating monster from aboriginal mythology. The marked similarities between these two mythical creatures reflected the universality of folk stories and legends.
Although there were times when I found this a very disturbing story to read, mainly because the depictions of brutality, bullying and cruelty were almost too realistically evoked, I have no hesitation in recommending it to readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy an element of magical realism in storytelling. I loved Jess Kidd’s skilful blending of historical fact and fiction in her richly-imagined story, one which was enriched even further by her use of beautiful, lyrical language to tell it.