David Horovitch

An unsettling tale of plague, drift and terror, The Shadow-Line documents a young seaman’s coming of age after he is recruited to captain a ship for the first time. Bad luck and disease haunt the inexperienced hero and his crew, and the evil legacy of the previous captain overshadows them with a feeling of supernatural menace. Against all odds, the young captain must get his crew through the Gulf of Siam to safety in Singapore, before they succumb to malaria and the curse of his mad predecessor. Written in 1915 and based on Conrad’s own experiences 27 years earlier, The Shadow-Line is a gripping take on the lines between youth and maturity, sanity and madness.