Below Deck

When 21-year-old Oli sets sail from Australia she embarks on a trip that will open her eyes to life's possibilities. Some years later, fluent in the language of the ocean, she is the only female crew member on-board a yacht delivery to New Zealand. There, in the darkness below deck, she learns something new: at sea, no one can hear you scream.Below Deck is about the moments that haunt us, that fan out like ripples through the deep. It is a novel about the vagaries of consent, about who has the space to speak and who is believed.

#MeToo has clearly had a profound influence on this novel, and Hardcastle's delineation of the ambiguities and uncertainties that underpin consent is both cogent and moving., her prose is often consolingly gorgeous, combining Oli's synesthesia and innate empathy with the elements to mesmeric effect., vividly realised and richly detailed . . . Below Deck goes beyond colourful descriptions of people and places into the realm of total sensory experience for the characters and the reader., Below Deck is a stunning literary novel. This is a poetic work that can be read aloud just as easily as it can be read in silence., Lyrical, profound, and deeply moving Sophie Hardcastle's Below Deck will confront as well as soothe, and is the most tender, hopeful battle-cry of a book.

Sophie Hardcastle is an Australian author, artist, screenwriter and scholar. In 2018, she was one of the first two Australians to be awarded a Provost's Scholarship in English literature at the University of Oxford, where she has since continued to work as a research assistant. She is the author of a memoir (Running Like China, 2010) and previous novel (Breathing Under Water, 2016) in Australia, with the release of Below Deck marking her introduction to UK readers.