In the late 19th century, steamships plied the waters of the Hudson River--and so, Mark Siegel tells us in the delightfully imaginative Sailor Twain, did mermaids. When Captain Twain (no relation to Mark) rescues an injured mermaid hanging off the side of his ship, he finds himself drawn into a world of myth and mystery on (and in) the river's waters. As he struggles to remain faithful to his wife while falling more and more in lust--or is it love?--with the mermaid he has rescued, he finds he's not the only one captivated by the legend of mermaids: the previous ship's owner disappeared after weeks of strange behavior; the current ship's owner is carrying on a correspondence with a famed but elusive author of folklore books; and a member of the crew finds himself unable to leave the ship and set foot on land.
Sailor Twain is a graphic novel of the finest calibre; Siegel's story, rich in its own right, is complemented by his intricately beautiful charcoal illustrations. Together, they make a complex, engaging narrative based as much on history as mythology, pushing aside the Disneyfied image of mermaids in favor of a more traditional, and somewhat fearful, representation. Despite its illustrations (or perhaps because of them), Sailor Twain is not a novel for children, but it is a fantastic--and fantastical--novel of romance, suspense and the power of legend. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm