The Serpentine Cave [Large Print]

by Jill Paton Walsh

Book Overview

After her artist mother dies, a daughter's search for her own past and the identity of her father takes her to a remote Cornwall fishing village. There she discovers her identity and her mother's art are irrevocably tied to a 1939 lifeboat disaster. This powerful story by the renowned children's author Jill Paton Walsh is a true story within an imagined one.

• Format: Hardcover
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0708990010
• ISBN13: 9780708990018
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Charnwood
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 9.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

searching for herself

The Serpentine Cave is a beautifully written story about a middle aged woman's search for her unknown father. Set in Cornwall, this novel evokes the spirit of this special region of England, and is a lovely study of a woman's search for her self in the context of her own past and that of her homeland. Jill Paton Walsh is a gifted writer. Also recommended is A Parcel of Patterns, which centers upon the plague village of Eyem.

Well written and intriguing

I first read Paton Walsh with the completion of Dorothy l. Sayers mystery novel, THRONES, DOMINATIONS and thought she wrote very well. This novel is also well-written; the characters are believable. The situation of never finding out who your father was is a little less believable, but as another review states, the artist character who keeps the secret, very well, could be the type to keep a secret to her grave. I liked the use of a real story from the coast of England as a part of this novel. The people of the village were intriguing as well as the major characters. Marion, the protagonist, finally finds her father but more she finds herself. She realizes that life is what is made of it, and we are responsible for making a happy life. And we are more like our parents than we ever want to be.