The release date for the English version of 'The Whalebone Theatre' by
Joanna Quinn is Oct 2022. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
A gripping, captivating first book about love, family, courage, lost innocence, and self-transformation that follows Cristabel Seagrave, the protagonist, from a theater in the enormous hole of a beached whale to clandestine operations during World War II.
A whale washes ashore on the English Channel's beaches one stormy night in 1928. Although it is the King's property by law, twelve-year-old orphan Cristabel Seagrave has different ideas. She constructs a theater out of the beast's skeleton rib cage with the help of her sister Flossie, her brother Digby, the eagerly anticipated heir to Chilcombe Manor, kitchen maid Maudie Kitcat, and guest artist Taras. Cristabel's imagination comes to life at the Whalebone Theatre, where she can escape from her brash governesses and penniless stepparents.
As Cristabel develops into a confident young lady, the shadow of World War II appears. In Nazi-occupied France, she and Digby enlist as British secret agents and go on separate missions. This is a riskier kind of acting that may destroy their family.