Landfall by Joseph Jablonski - Our Next Title

Bacon Press Books is pleased to announce our next title - Landfall, a gripping novel by Joseph Jablonski. It will be out in time for the holidays.

After a long career at sea, Jake Thomas thinks he’s finally put his life in order. He’s got a new wife, a new home, time to tend his roses and to write. But his past and the secrets he’s kept, even from himself, won’t stay buried.
 
Forty years earlier, a woman was murdered during Jake’s first voyage as a deck cadet on the American freighter, the SS James Wait. Her children want answers only Jake can give. But resurrecting old memories takes him spiraling back to the chaos and upheaval of the late 1960s.

In this riveting story-within-a-story, Jake’s peaceful routine in Portland, Oregon, stands in stark contrast to his days as a merchant seaman in Subic Bay, when he set off on a journey to discover his dark side. A journey that hasn’t yet ended.
 
Like Joseph Conrad, Joseph Jablonski has created a novel set at sea that is as much a careful observation of human nature and a powerful condemnation of war as it is a fascinating sea story.


What we love about this book
Landfall is one of those books that won't fit neatly into just one category. It's too large. It's about Jake Thomas's struggle to come to terms with his past. But beneath that is the struggle to come to terms with the war in Vietnam and its casualties. It's about the hypnotic spell of first love, the devastation when it ends, and how both remain for years. And it's about a modern marriage crumbling. Then there's the murder of Alice - the questions left unanswered. The search for truth, no matter the cost. All done in a simple, powerful style that reminded us of Joseph Conrad. 


In other words, there's an awful lot to love about Landfall.   

 

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