The Sailor’s Return (1925) is a novel by David Garnett. Published several years after Garnett was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize for Lady into Fox (1922), his fourth novel explores themes of race and empire while showcasing the author’s original—and often controversial—literary style. “He was in no hurry to go ashore, and waited half an hour for the confusion to be straightened out on board, and the turmoil to subside on land, before he motioned to the young negro who accompanied him to bear a hand with a large basket of woven grass.” Arriving home in Dorset, England aboard the Duke of Kent, mariner William Targett brings a young African woman and child with him. Soon, the hostile townspeople discover that the woman is not only William’s wife, but that he is the father of her child. Despite their love, despite their attempts to live peacefully, the racist attitudes of Targett’s countrymen make it impossible to live safely in England, and soon lead to unspeakable tragedy. This edition of David Garnett’s The Sailor’s Return is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.

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