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Books

To the ends of the earth — but not back

Naomi Williams’s novel Landfalls skilfully recreates Lapérouse’s ill-fated 1785 expedition of discovery, which vanished without trace

7 November 2015

9:00 AM

7 November 2015

9:00 AM

Landfalls Naomi J. Williams

Little, Brown, pp.315, £14.99, ISBN: 9781408705766

What’s in a name? The identity of the author offers a clue to one of the themes of this intriguing novel: Naomi, a good Hebrew name; Williams, a stout Welsh name; born in Japan; lives in California. The earth is spanned.

Landfalls charts the voyage of two French frigates exploring the world at the end of the 18th century, after Cook but before the Revolution.

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