#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from Prophet Song by Paul Lynch to James by Percival Everett

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation.

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own #6Degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on X using the hashtag #6Degrees.

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This month’s starting book is Prophet Song by Paul Lynch which won the Booker Prize in 2023. It’s a book I haven’t read but is on my wishlist. Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.

My first link is rather literal, but I hope not blasphemous, involving the name of a prophet from the Bible – Gideon. Gideon’s Day by J. J. Marric (the pseudonym of crime writer John Creasey) chronicles a day in the life of Detective Superintendent George Gideon of Scotland Yard during which he deals with various cases including alleged bribery, a robbery and a murder.

Gideon’s Day was made into a film starring Jack Hawkins who also took the leading role in the film adaptation of the novel The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Montsarrat. It’s set on board a small warship, HMS Compass Rose, tasked with escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean in World War Two.

Another book which features life aboard a ship during WW2 is Splinter on the Tide by Philip Parotti. Naval reservist Ash Miller is given command of a 110-foot wooden ‘submarine chaser’ tasked with protecting merchant ships from attack by German U-boats along the US Atlantic coast.

Another small boat features in The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor, based on a true story. Its 1940 and Alice King is escorting a group of children to Canada when a Nazi U-boat torpedoes their ship, the S.S. Carlisle, leaving a single lifeboat adrift in the storm-tossed Atlantic.

In How to Build A Boat by Elaine Feeny, 13-year-old Jamie is persuaded that building a boat is more practical than the perpetual motion machine he wanted to construct in an effort to connect with his mother who died when he was born.

Boatbuilding would be a useful skill for Huck and escaped slave, Jim, as they travel down the Mississippi River on a raft in James by Percival Everett, the author’s re-imagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024 taking us full circle to the starting book.

My chain has taken me from dystopian Ireland to the Mississippi River. Where did your chain take you?