Westport author Charlotte Rogan discusses her book, 'The Lifeboat'

On Wednesday, August 8 at 7:00 pm you will find out more about Lifeboat #14 -- At just twenty-three feet long, seven feet two inches wide, lifeboat 14 was overloaded with 39 passengers -- when Westport author Charlotte Rogan discusses her book at The Norwalk Public Library.

It is the summer of 1914 Grace Winter’s future finally seems secure as she and her new husband set sail for New York. When a mysterious explosion sinks their ship, Grace is thrust into a lifeboat -- even though the boat is already filled beyond capacity.

The weather deteriorates and the passengers are forced to choose sides. Over the course of three perilous weeks, the lifeboat passengers plot, scheme, gossip and console one another while questioning their deepest assumptions about goodness, humanity and God.

Grace is finally rescued, only to be put on trial for her life. Unsure what to make of their client, Grace’s attorneys suggest she write her story down. The result is a page-turning tale of moral dilemmas, and also a haunting portrait of a woman as unforgettable and complicated as the events she describes.
“Charlotte Rogan uses a deceptively simple narrative of shipwreck and survival to explore our all-too-human capacity for self-deception.” -- JM Coetzee, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature/author of Waiting for the Barbarians.
Charlotte Rogan graduated from Princeton University in 1975. She worked at various jobs, mostly in the fields of architecture and engineering, before teaching herself to write and staying home to bring up triplets. An old criminal law text and her childhood experiences among a family of sailors provided inspiration for The Lifeboat, her first novel. After many years in Dallas and a year in Johannesburg, she and her husband now live in Westport, Connecticut.