Söndags-smakbit # 35

Bloggen Betraktelser ger oss på söndagar chansen att publicera ett litet smakprov ur en bok vi läser.
Där får du många spännande boktitlar att kika närmare på.

Jag läser The Mercies av Kiran Millwood Hargrave, en historisk roman som utspelar sig på den ensligt belägna nordnorska ön Vardö på 1600-talet. Titeln är länkad till förlaget där du kan läsa mer.

Smakbit sid.29

”On the morning of the third day, their dead men are brought out from the first boathouse, already smelling a little, stomachs swollen in their cloth shrouds stitched by Toril. They are laid beside the open graves, stark white against the freshly turned earth.”

sid.77

”There is a hierarchy to a ship stricter than in the finest house. There must be no country run harder or neater than a ship.
In place of beasts are the monkeys, the boys of twelve or thirteen who climb the rigging and swab the decks: even the ship´s cat is treated better. Then there are the sailors, older, rougher. They are skilled and coarse, going about their tasks with a rhythm inscrutable. The captain, it seems, is higher than a king, though lower than God.”