The Starboard Sea

New
Paperback
2013
$20.05

It is the summer of 1987. Jason Prosper is eighteen and on his way to Bellingham Academy, a school known for offering wayward privileged students a second chance - and Jason needs a second chance: ever since his best friend's suicide, his life has been badly adrift.
At Bellingham, Jason joins the sailing team, and meets a compelling young woman called Aidan. His friends warn him off, saying she is 'damaged goods'. But Jason feels like damaged too, and the pair form an intense connection.
But when a major hurricane gathers just off the coast, Jason's world begins to cloud over again. And when the full extent of the storm's damage is finally revealed, the truths it lays bare - and the secrets it dredges up - look set to alter the course of Jason life forever.

Synopsis

It is the summer of 1987. Jason Prosper is eighteen and on his way to Bellingham Academy, a school known for offering wayward privileged students a second chance - and Jason needs a second chance: ever since his best friend's suicide, his life has been badly adrift.

At Bellingham, Jason joins the sailing team, and meets a compelling young woman called Aidan. His friends warn him off, saying she is 'damaged goods'. But Jason feels like damaged too, and the pair form an intense connection.

But when a major hurricane gathers just off the coast, Jason's world begins to cloud over again. And when the full extent of the storm's damage is finally revealed, the truths it lays bare - and the secrets it dredges up - look set to alter the course of Jason life forever.

$20.05

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Publisher: Corsair
Published: 18 Jul 2013
ISBN 10: 1472106563
ISBN 13: 9781472106568
Book Overview: A stylish debut set in the elite world of Manhattan penthouses, Maine summer estates, old boy prep schools and exclusive sailing clubs. Perfect for readers who adore American fiction in the vein of The Secret History by Donna Tartt and The Privileges by Jonathan Dee.

Media Reviews

The Starboard Sea is a touching, beautiful and deeply wise novel, a hymn to the bittersweet glories of youth. You will be enthralled. -- Justin Cronin author of The Passage
Dermont is a confident stylist, musical and alliterative. * Independent on Sunday *
Dermont measures out the stories behind Jason's twin tragedies coolly, without altering the pace of her well-crafted narrative. * Financial Times *
Utterly convincing. * Daily Mail *
Writing that will give you goosebumps...written in sparse yet evocative language...Aidan and Jason's tragic stories will stay with you. * Psychologies Magazine *
With unflinching wit, Amber Dermont examines the harsh vicissitudes of life, and though the worlds she creates are often unsettling places, her sense of detail always makes for a pleasurable read. There is a vibrant lucidity to her language, a daring music...Her characters are simultaneously able to articulate their pain, pass judgment on their own behavior and pardon themselves for their transgressions. * Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize and Orange Prize winning author of Gilead and Home *
...engrossing...captivating and inspired. Jason is a fiercely likeable first-person narrator and romantic hero. The steady, restrained unmasking of Jason's history...is one of the novel's many achievements....Dermont adeptly charts the fine calibrations of teenage love and shame and belonging. * The New York Times *
Dermont draws the tony campus life in The Starboard Sea with an insider's hand... Jason has been compared to Nick Carraway for his sober narration and keen sensitivity to the decadence of his peers, and in more than a few instances The Starboard Sea feels like a distant cousin of The Great Gatsby. * The Washington Post *
Vividly written. Dermont shows real spark in her sensual descriptions of sailing and her realistic depiction of the malevolent dynamics among sophisticated teens.... * Booklist *

Author Bio

Amber Dermont received her MFA in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she held the prestigious Teaching-Writing Fellowship. She is the author of Damage Control, a collection of short stories. She is currently the Charles Loridans Chair atnd associate professor of English and creative writing at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. The Starboard Sea is her first novel.