Surviving Savannah by Patti Callahan Henry

 

I would not usually pick up a book with a plot about shipwrecks, but one in the capable hands of Patti Callahan Henry could only be well-researched with an intriguing plot similar to her favorite of mine, Becoming Mrs. Lewis.

Surviving Savannah is about the explosion in 1838 of the luxury steamship Pulaski, called "The Titanic of the South." Callahan Henry fleshes out the tragedy with personal stories of both real and fictional characters.

Told over two timelines – one in 1838 and the other in present day  -- the historical fiction novel involves Everly Winthrop of Savannah, a fictional character, who becomes a guest curator of a museum exhibit featuring artifacts that were actually  recovered from the steamship in 2018. The 1838 timeline follows the passengers on the Pulaski, some who survive, some who perish.

The main fictional characters, one of whom is based on an actual passenger, relay the bulk of the survival story. Augusta Longstreet, the sister of the steamship’s builder, is sailing with his family to New York, while her niece Lilly is a passenger along with her husband, daughter, and nurse maid. Both Augusta and Lilly will end up in the water and fight to survive, neither knowing of the other’s struggle.

Patti Callahan Henry, a former pediatric nurse, is a co-creator and co-host of the weekly podcast Friends and Fiction on Facebook.  A full-time author, wife, and mother of three, she has homes in both Alabama and South Carolina.