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A Swordboat Captain Returns to the Sea
Linda Greenlaw hadn't been bluewater fishing for ten years - not since the events chronicled in the books The Perfect Storm and The Hungry Ocean - but when her lobster traps aren't paying off, her truck is on its last gasp, and the bills are piling up, she decides to take a friend up on his offer and captain a boat for a season of swordfishing. A decade older, and with family responsibilities, she's a different person heading out to sea, but any reluctance is quickly tempered by the magnetic lure of adventure. And the adventures begin almost immediately: The ship turns out to be rusty and ancient, and even with a crew of four Greenlaw is faced with technical challenges. There are the expected complexities of longline fishing and the nuances of reading the weather. Her greatest challenge, however, comes when the boat's lines inadvertently drift into Canadian waters and Greenlaw is thrown in jail.
Capturing the moment-by-moment details of her journey, Greenlaw tells a story about human nature and the nature around us, about learning what can be controlled and when to let fate step in. Seaworthy is a compelling narrative about a person setting her own terms and finding her true self between land and water.
"Between bad luck and self-doubt, she moves from experience to wisdom, guiding both crew and readers on a voyage of self-affirmation." - Publishers Weekly
"A vanishing slice of life caught with ardor and freshness." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Seaworthy was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Linda Greenlaw's first book, The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat
Captain's Journey (1999), spent more than six months on the New York Times bestseller list. The Lobster Chronicles followed in 2002, All Fishermen Are Liars in 2004 and Seaworthy in 20011. She is the winner of the U.S. Maritime Literature Award in 2003, and the New England Book Award for nonfiction in 2004. Time Magazine called her 2005 Recipes From a Very Small Island, co-authored with her mother Martha Greenlaw, a "must-have cookbook".
Before becoming a writer, Linda Greenlaw was America's only female swordfishing captain, a career that earned her a prominent role in Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and a portrayal in the subsequent film. She is also featured on the Discovery Channel series Swords: Life on the Line.
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