The lifeboat, by Charlotte Rogan

Set just two years after the Titanic disaster, this fictional tale of another shipwreck is told from the viewpoint of one of the 39 inhabitants of a lifeboat launched as the ship went down.  We know from the first page that Grace Winter has survived the experience and that for some reason she has been imprisoned upon her arrival back on dry land.  Grace is newly married and returning to New York after a honeymoon in England.  As days pass in the overloaded boat, we learn of her life and of the factions that are developing amongst the passengers.  We see glimmers of what may have happened.  But all is filtered through Grace’s perception and her self-deception.  A morally complex tale that gives one a lot to think about, the kind of book that might be a candidate for a Washington University “Freshman Read” selection.  274 pp.