1850:  A sea-chest full of books arrives for Antonio Mateus Carvalho Cabral, the younger son of a family of whalers on the small volcanic island of Pico …

 The Carvalho brothers – handsome Marcelinho and clever Antonio – are destined to spend their lives hunting whales. But the arrival of an unexpected gift changes both their lives forever. As the younger Carvalho discovers the fascinating world of the whale, a chasm opens between the two brothers, made all the more perilous by their shared passion for the alluring and wilful Margarida Machado.

From the Azores to Lisbon, from Newfoundland to Australia, our hero travels in search of love, fortune and his very soul. It is in Eden, a small whaling port on the south coast of New South Wales, that he finally finds salvation in the shape of Alice Binney, fellow lost soul and impostor, in flight from her dark past. An enduring bond forms between the two, culminating in a final, dazzling act of atonement.

Gloriously dark, delightful, witty and moving, Mr Carver’s Whale is a novel of our many crimes against nature and the human heart and the price we have to pay for our sins.

But can love ever really be a crime?

Mr Carver’s Whale is published by HarperCollins Fourth Estate and available in both paperback and eBook.

The Audiobook, narrated by Danielle Carter, is available on Bolinda, Audible and other good streaming platforms.

ISBN 9781460762950

Reviews

Books + Publishing June 2022  “Mr Carver’s Whale is a delightful, almost mythical novel filled with books, ghosts, poetry, oceans, whales, love, desire and death.  …a vast and generous novel… Lyn Hughes’s … characters [are] wonderfully poignant and whimsical… their rich inner lives are exquisitely rendered… recommended for fans of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and A Gentleman in Moscow.”