A storm is looming on the horizon of the Formosa Channel, and every indication, from the length of the waves to the absence of wind, suggests that it will be of an exceptional nature. The steamer Nan-Shan, flying the Siamese flag, is just sailing toward that fury. At its helm is Captain Tom Mac Whirr, a man of few words who left a secure job as a shopkeeper in his native Belfast to take to the sea and who has made a career of it and gotten the helm of the Nan-Shan only because he is a straight-liner, a man so stupid as to take even the most banal phrases literally. His stolidity prevents him from deviating from the usual rules to avoid the storm, and instead drives him straight ahead into the typhoon. Yet as the storm grows in intensity, Mac Whirr’s dull lack of imagination is transformed from a caricatured trait to a decisive resource for steadfastly coping with the most desperate moments, eliciting the astonished admiration of his associates – and of the reader himself. Mac Whirr thus emerges as the hero devoid of heroism, the ambiguous protagonist of an enigmatic and fascinating novel that cannot fail to accompany us long after we have finished reading it and that will perhaps stay with us forever.
Unabridged edition with an interactive table of contents.
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