Ahab’s Return: Or, the Last Voyage

What if Ahab survived the sinking of the Pequod and Moby-Dick was a fictionalized version of reality penned by Ishmael? In this unusual and gripping novel from Edgar-winner Ford (The Shadow Year), the monomaniacal captain’s quest is to reunite with his family. In 1853, George Harrow, a writer for a New York City tabloid who never lets his stories be bound by the truth, encounters Ahab at Fraunce’s Tavern. When Ahab explains how he escaped from the white whale and made his way back, Harrow decides to join Ahab in his effort to track down his wife, Iris, and son, Gabriel. The captain learns that Iris has succumbed to smallpox, and that Gabriel, now 16, has fallen in with a street gang. The pair’s search for Gabriel leads them to a unique, race-blind community whose children are being murdered, and a reunion with another Pequod survivor. Fans of successful reimaginings of literary classics such as Louis Bayard’s Mr. Timothy, about a grown-up Tiny Tim, will be entertained. [em]Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Aug.) [/em]