Davina Langdale
Ocean Red
Woman at Sea
By Catherine Poulain (Translated by Adriana Hunter)
Jonathan Cape 290pp £14.99 order from our bookshop
A bright red fish ‘streaming with seawater and blood’ plants a poisonous spine ‘like a flaming arrow’ in the hand of a fisherwoman; the hand swells, becoming lethally infected; the woman stubbornly refuses aid, until eventually she is manhandled to safety by the all-male crew of her fishing vessel. This situation is characteristic of a strange, hypnotic tale in which a wildly brave, possibly half-crazed woman pursues her own ‘beautiful red ending’.
The young woman (her age is never specified) is Lili, a French runaway who travels to Alaska to seek work on a fishing boat. Despite having no experience, she secures a place on the Rebel and is plunged into a world of butchery and dangerous exertion.
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