Korzeniowski

the long version

In the year 1882, the young Polish-born Korzeniowski was the captain of a British merchant marine ship anchored in the Gulf of Siam. A mysterious and sinister man is pulled out of the water and let on board by the inexperienced captain, bringing danger to the ship and causing doubt about Korzeniowski's sanity. And there is something darker lurking behind his action, there is love and aberration, murder and betrayal. Captain Korzeniowski publishes a story based on the incident, The Secret Sharer, under the soon-to-be-famous pseudonym of Joseph Conrad. There are some startling inconsistencies between his narrative and other versions of the events in the Gulf of Siam. Is it truth or fiction? Did the incident really take place? Was the young Captain, now the darling of London literary salons, a liar and a homosexual? James Lansbury's first novel is a blend of epistolary fiction, theatre, literary criticism and Freudian psychoanalysis.