This is a story of two children. Their world's are very much apart, they live in very different times, yet their lives follow the same path. In 1629 Mayken has lost her mother. Her father is abroad so along with her nanny she has been boarded into a ship to be taken to him. The other child is a bit called Gil. He also has lost his mother but he is sent to live in an island with his elderly grandfather. Life is difficult at first but after being given a pet, a tortouse, he begins to cope much better. As it turns out Mayhem lives the adventure if life at sea. The shop is trading with the spice islands and is carrying a lot of coin. A dangerous thing to do in those times. The shop was the Batavia and happenings on board in the book were actually a true life story...with men, women and children murdered you are glued to finding out what happened all those centuries ago. Yet Gil's life was also full of tragedy..his mother as it turns out was a drug addict in the 1980s and with all that came more problems and hardship.I would say this book is unusual...for me it is probably not a book I would ordinarily picked up...but the author dragged me into it's pages and it wasn't long before I was hooked