'When the Night Comes' By Favel Parrett - Evoking the beauty of snow and ice

BOOK NUMBER 2

This was a book from my Christmas present list as I had really enjoyed Favel Parrett's first book 'Past the Shallows'.  ‘When the Night Comes’ came out of an Antarctic Arts Fellowship Favel Parrett was awarded that enabled her to travel down to Antarctica.  The book is a story of a ship, the Danish Antarctic supply vessel, the Nella Dan, the sea and an island, Tasmania.  The rhythmic, lyrical nature of Favel Parrett’s writing eases you into the feel of waves and weather, seagulls slicing through the sky and grey and blue days and the white of snow petrels disappearing as they fly across the ice.  

I was going to write that Favell Parrett is a young Australian author, and then I looked up her age and whilst she is young by my advanced standards, I was surprised that she is actually 36 as her writing has an innocence and freshness that made me think that she was in her twenties.

I really enjoyed the book, which is the story not just of a young Australian girl, Isla and a Danish seaman, Bo, but of life aboard an ocean going working ship and a really stunning evocation of the landscape of Antarctica – now added to my wish list of places to go.  I gave the book to Simon, my husband, as generally anything to do with the sea hits the spot so far as he is concerned, (‘Another Great Day at Sea’ by Geoff Dyer about life on a US aircraft carrier was a standout winner last year on his reading list).   He is isn’t as gripped as I was by ‘When the Night Comes’ and asked somewhat plaintively “When does something happen?”, a fair question given his preference is for a gun, car chase and sex to appear in the first chapter of most books, and the honest answer is not much happens at all – but it does show a book doesn’t have to be packed with action to be beautiful.