Seaborne

Seaborne is another fine example of the historical novelist’s art, an admirable feat of imagination. O’Connor’s Anne has a fluid identity from the start… Anne emerges as not only a feminist and even a gender-fluid hero, but a hero to anyone for whom the dream of freedom remains.

-- Pat Carty * Sunday Business Post *

Seaborne is 'a vivid portrait of a complicated woman, both of her time ... and in advance of it. This is an astonishingly sensual book ... Anne's sexuality is depicted with refreshing frankness; she takes it for granted that she can be attracted to all sorts of people ... those looking for a beautifully written portrait of an extraordinary woman in wild and windswept times will be richly rewarded. The ocean runs through every line of this fantastic book; after turning the pages, you feel as if you might taste salt water on your fingers.'

-- Anna Carey * Irish Times *

With Seaborne she really hits her stride, bringing Anne Bonny to life as a lively, lusty and complicated woman ... O'Connor does a convincing job of revealing Anne's vanished world and private thoughts with the sheer power of her imagination. Historical nuances are seamlessly woven into the narrative ... She has such a musical ear for language - you can tell that O'Connor is a poet too ... This is as swashbuckling a tale as you could hope for. Anne Bonny leaps off the pages in all her fiery glory and O'Connor shows us once again how a brilliant novelist can resurrect a whole life. 

-- Lorraine Courtney * Sunday Independent *

Seaborne is a superb novel, bursting with a buzzing vitality and sensuality. O’Connor has captured a time and place with an outstanding clarity. A powerful and remarkable portrayal, Seaborne is an exuberant and passionate novel, a cracking adventure and a fascinating insight into the life of a legend.

-- Mairéad Hearne * Swirl and Thread *

For NORA

'O'Connor succeeds in rendering Nora and Jim as three-dimensional humans with the same frailties and foibles as the rest of us.'

-- John Walshe * Sunday Business Post *

For NORA

'This fictional Nora is entirely convincing in her raw sensuality, her stubborn determination, her powerful sense of grievance and her inability to stop loving a deeply erratic, wildly manipulative yet enormously talented man.’

* The New York Times *
 

 

This is a dazzling novel. It seems nearly cliché to describe a book as a ‘beach read’, especially a book so concerned with the tides, but O’Connor’s Seaborne is the perfect accompaniment to an escape from the everyday.

This summer readers are going to fall in love with Anne; she’s the ultimate bisexual pirate icon Irish fiction has been waiting for.

-- Aimée W