Wild and Distant Seas tells the tales of the women in a way which keeps you reading and engrossed. I like that the story includes characters from Moby Dick in a subtle and well written book.
The cover is lovely and will be sure to catch patron’s attention in the library.

Evangeline's husband has been lost at sea. And yet, the ever-present demand of their Nantucket Inn persists. Picking up the pieces of her shattered life while struggling to keep the inn going, Evangeline's past unexpectedly crosses with a young sailor by the name of Ishmael.

And the rest, as we know it--is history. Or is it?

"Wild and Distant Seas" held more promise than almost any book I've picked up this year; 1800s Nantucket, a sailor's widow, and a crossover with Ishmael just before he sails with Ahab in search of the mighty white whale. But much to my disappointment, that part of the story was barely the story at all. Marketed as a sweeping epic that begins with Ishmael and Evagenline's fateful meeting, this "epic" was not nearly enough sea and sailors and far too much map-hopping and generation-skipping packed into just 300 pages. Evangeline, Rachel, Mara, Antonia. Each of them fell woefully flat for me, and before I had the chance to grasp their vastly-different stories and settings, we were already onto the next.

If "Wild and Distant Seas" has peaked your interest yet, know that this is not the Moby Dick retelling (or even a distant cousin) that I was intrigued by; this is a generational story that spans the globe rather than the seas, and I regret to say I was bored the entire time despite the author's beautiful writing.

A clever spin-off from the classic story of Moby Dick, this book follows four generations of women whose lives are impacted by the seas, by a man named Ishmael, and by their own choices. Evangeline Hussey is the clam-making inn-keeper from the tale of Moby Dick, and the book begins with her story. Evangeline has the 'gift' of seeing into people's minds and somehow changing their memories of recent events. It's a gift that is passed on in some form to her daughter, Rachel, to her granddaughter Mara and to her great-granddaughter Antonia. Each generation's story is compelling and fascinating, and involves countries and continents as each woman searches for the elusive 'Ishmael' who originally turned up on Evangeline's doorstep. From 1849 - 1905, the search continues from the USA to South America, to Europe and back to the USA, coming full circle in this compelling read.

Searching for Ismael is perhaps an allegory for the search for belonging and for home; and for knowing one's context and purpose. Each woman is searching for something deep and important, for happiness and meaning, all veiled as a search for the man they know as Ishmael. And in the end they and we realise that interfering with how others think, trying to change things for one's own ends, does not guarantee contentment, wealth or happiness. Or indeed the sense of home.

This is very well-written literary fiction and an extraordinary debut novel. I hope to read more in the future by this author.

With thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for the ARC. All views expressed are my own

I was intrigued by the premise of this story - Moby Dick’s Ishmael has an affair with a Nantucket inn keeper that results in a child and that child has a child and that child has a child…all of them daughters, all of them with some sort of power or ability, and all of them searching for Ishmael. Each daughter’s story stood on its own and read like a short story, but they came full circle in the end.

'I wanted to believe I had changed the story...Yet I came to see I had wrought something far more fragile, an illusion etched on a pane of glass'.

Evangeline is gifted with the power to re-shape others' memories, 'I could suggest to someone that a recent moment was not quite as they remembered it'. When Evangeline's husband dies, she increasingly relies on this ability in order to maintain the facade of her life despite her husband's premature departure. However, as with all lives based upon a fragile web of deceit, increasingly, her safety feels fleeting and her loneliness more permanent. However, a brief encounter with Ishmael, before he sets sail on his infamous voyage, forever changes Evangeline's life and that of future generations.

'Wild and Distant Seas' is a story created from one of the minor characters in 'Moby Dick', Evangeline Hussey, who ran the 'Try Pots Inn' and was known for her chowder. Evangeline, her daughter Rachel, granddaughter Mara, and great-granddaughter Antonia all possess varying powers of the mind which are used in their personal quests for Ishmael. It becomes clear that Ishmael represents the search for belonging and meaning rather than a literal pursuit. As the story comes full circle, there's a realisation that interfering and changing fates, in order to get what you want, does not in fact get you anywhere you need to be, 'To live an illusion was to live in fear...'.

You’ll enjoy this if you appreciate literary fiction, mixed with magical realism which gives an ethereal flare to the story.

i think the way the author expresses herself is pretty impressive, the language she uses perfectly paints the picture for the scenery and that’s what i enjoyed the most, it is difficult to connect to the story though, the main plot of finding ishmael was not very well developed and i think only people that have read moby dick will understand more about this character bc i haven’t read it and it seems pointless to me but the mother daughter relationships make this book worthwhile

Fairly decent. Nothing spectacular writing wise, but solid enough for a debut. I can't say I'm enthusiastic about the author and what she produces next.

I really enjoyed reading Wild and Distant Seas. It’s a generational story told from the perspectives of each woman, from mother to daughter to granddaughter. The story is loosely related to the tale of Moby Dick in that some characters from it are included, but this book more focuses on the love and loss between generations of women in this family. Each woman has a special power of perception, which added a bit of magical realism. My big takeaway from this story was that it left me thinking about how much of a role both holding on to someone and letting them go plays within familial relationships.

What a lush and wonderful tale. Some of my favorite titles are familiar stories with a change in perspective. This one did not disappoint! Would make a perfect book club discussion too!

This was quite an interesting take on Moby Dick and did make me want to return to the original. Each section functions as almost its own short story, with each generation of one family obsessed with finding Ishmael. Some characters/journeys were more interesting than others, and I wasn’t quite sure I totally bought the goal for some characters, but it was an enjoyable read. Thank you for the ARC.

Imagine: the Ishmael of Moby Dick has a liaison with an innkeeper in Nantucket, and she has a daughter. That daughter has one too, and so on. This novel follows the lives of all of those daughters, who all have psychic powers of one kind or another, and who are, for reasons I cannot fathom and which are not provided very well by the author, desperate to find Ishmael. Apart from Ishmael's daughter, who tries to seek out her father because it seems the thing to do, there's no impetus for the others to continue the search. One of them does eventually find the woman with whom Ishmael fathered the first daughter, and we learn of the terrible consequences of some of the various offsprings' mental powers.

The characters remained rather flat for me, and despite the fact that most of them have become hardened from betrayals, rough conditions and erratic upbringings full of trauma, I don't feel much sympathy for them or relate to them well.

This was a slightly different story to the usual fare. As we meet the women in each generation, and the difficulties they encounter, we travel to different places and times. I did feel that this felt like reading a short story, but as the book progressed, it all fell into place. Themes of motherhood, friendship, missing fathers and longing all come out in this book. I enjoyed the writing style and the prose about the whales was beautiful.

I received a temporary digital copy of Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts from NetGalley,W.W. Norton & Company and the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wild and Distant Seas is a story of four generations of women beginning with Evangeline Hussey, an inn-keeper on the island of Nantucket and follows her descendants through Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho. Each women holds a bit of magical power, which she will try use to her advantage.

I found this book cover to be gorgeous and am drawn to historical fiction originating in Nantucket, so Wild and Distant Seas was a must read for me. The story of Evangeline and her descendants were interesting; I was drawn to some character's stories more than others. I did love Roberts' writing with the metaphorical descriptions of Evangeline's family to the whale family.