The Last Boat

On the morning of her centennial birthday, Amelia Moorland wakes from a recurring dream and instinctively knows she will be dead by the end of the day. For eighty years, she has been haunted by a tragedy that occurred in the cold waters of Nantucket Sound—and it is now time to break her silence.

A rambunctious twenty-year-old in the early 1900s, Amelia follows her childhood friend, Samantha, onto the ferry from Nantucket. Samantha ties herself to her heavy suitcase, picks it up, and jumps into the ocean. Amelia dives after her and struggles to bring Samantha back to the surface. But Samantha is too heavy, and Amelia has no choice but to let her go. When the authorities open an investigation, no one believes Amelia’s anguished account—and her reputation is ruined.

Eighty years later, in an attempt to clear her name, Amelia recounts her story. From the early years of twentieth-century Nantucket, to New York City and the battlefields of World War I France, Amelia gives a detailed account of her extraordinary life, one filled with joy, disappointment, loss, and enduring love. But no one knows if Amelia’s finally telling the truth—or permanently covering up a decades-long mystery.