Cover of The Whalebone Theatre: A Read with Jenna Pick A Novel

The Whalebone Theatre: A Read with Jenna Pick A Novel

by Joanna Quinn

576 pages2023Knopf Doubleday Publishing GroupISBN 9780593467152

About this book

<b><i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BEST SELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • A transporting, irresistible debut novel that takes its heroine, Cristabel Seagrave, from a theatre made of whalebones to covert operations during World War II—a story of love, family, bravery, lost innocence, and self-transformation.</b><br><br><b>“Absolute aces...Quinn’s imagination and adventuresome spirit are a pleasure to behold.” —<i>The New York Times</i></b><br><br><b><i> </i>“Utterly heartbreaking and joyous.” —Jo Baker, author of <i>Longbourn</i></b><br><br><b><i> </i></b>One blustery night in 1928, a whale washes up on the shores of the English Channel. By law, it belongs to the King, but twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has other plans. She and the rest of the household—her sister, Flossie; her brother, Digby, long-awaited heir to Chilcombe manor; Maudie Kitcat, kitchen maid; Taras, visiting artist—build a theatre from the beast’s skeletal rib cage. Within the Whalebone Theatre, Cristabel can escape her feckless stepparents and brisk governesses, and her imagination comes to life.<br><br>As Cristabel grows into a headstrong young woman, World War II rears its head. She and Digby become British secret agents on separate missions in Nazi-occupied France—a more dangerous kind of playacting, it turns out, and one that threatens to tear the family apart.

Publication Details

Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published
2023
Pages
576
ISBN
9780593467152
Language
en

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