THE VOYAGE HOME

The measured pace of Rogers's narrative is perfectly suited to the brooding style of this psychological exploration of past sins and present-day guilt. Anne Harrington's missionary father has died in Africa, so the 37-year-old schoolteacher leaves London to oversee the final disposition of his affairs. Duties completed, Anne returns home via container ship—a journey that will take several weeks—because she needs the time "to find out what she feels" about his death. Onboard, she begins the ill-advised task of reading the journal he kept in the 1960s when he and her mother first moved to Nigeria. His entries reveal disconcerting secrets that open a chasm between Anne's memories and the written record. Then a stowaway beseeches Anne to help him and his pregnant wife. Anne ignores her gut feelings, does what she thinks is best for the couple and is plunged headlong into a complicated eddy of murder and deception over which she has no control. While Rogers creates a first-rate parallel between the settlement of Anne's internal conflict and the resolution of the issues aboard ship, the novel's conclusion is disappointingly flat. Still, this is a lusciously written tale, rich in emotional nuance. Agent, Georges Borchardt. (July)

FYI: Rogers's previous novels have won several awards, including the Orange Prize ( Island) and the Somerset Maugham Award ( Her Living Image).