The Accomplice

Kathryn Heyman

Titanic meets Lord of the Flies in the seventeenth century. What starts as a journey to a new life turns into a brutal power struggle for survival. Although I found it hard to get into, I was moved by Judith's experiences and was introduced to an historical event which I had never heard of.

Extract

He has told me that I am to see Father only once a day, and for only a few minutes. Father has been forbidden to pray or preach. Each morning he takes his Holy Book to the far side of the island and spends the whole day there. When I asked Conraat why he should ask such a thing of me, he said in a soft voice 'I want to keep you safe, I do not know whether they will harm your father. I thought your family would be safe, but they were not. And surely if they harm him, and you are with him, they will harm you.'

Parallels