The Porpoise

★ 3.8 avg 39 votes

About this book

" 'I really am so very, very sorry about this,' he says, in an oddly formal voice... They strike the side of a grain silo. They are travelling at seventy miles per hour. A newborn baby is the sole survivor of a terrifying plane crash. She is raised in wealthy isolation by an overprotective father. She knows nothing of the rumours about a beautiful young woman, hidden from the world. When a suitor visits, he understands far more than he should. Forced to run for his life, he escapes aboard The Porpoise, an assassin on his tail... So begins a wild adventure of a novel, damp with salt spray, blood and tears. A novel that leaps from the modern era to ancient times; a novel that soars, and sails, and burns long and bright; a novel that almost drowns in grief yet swims ashore; in which pirates rampage, a princess wins a wrestler's hand, and ghost women with lampreys' teeth drag a man to hell - and in which the members of a shattered family, adrift in a violent world, journey towards a place called home."--Provided by publisher.

3.8 ★★★★☆ average of 3 sources · 39 votes
Open Library 4.0 1
1★2★3★4★5★
Apple Books 4.0 39
Hardcover 3.1 11

Reader Profile

Enjoyment76Difficulty60Influence23Popularity31Classic7

3.8/5 · 39 readers · 336 pages · ≈ 6 h 13 m · Moderate

How long does it take to read The Porpoise?

About ≈ 6 h 13 m — 336 pages, assuming roughly 250 words per page at 225 words per minute.Typical novel≈ 5 h 56 mThe Porpoise~6 h 13 m

How many pages is The Porpoise?

336 pages in its most-read edition.Typical novel320The Porpoise336

What genre is The Porpoise?

It sits on the Sea Stories, Fiction shelves.

Is The Porpoise in the public domain?

No — it is still under copyright.

Who wrote The Porpoise?

Mark Haddon.