Excerpt from The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

That imposed a morality beyond the terse handful of commands in the chaplain’s book. It was to acknowledge the unity of all things. To injure any was to damage all.

He dreamed of leaving the place, not just the Academy but Portsmouth, closed in on itself, squeezed tightly around the harbour, those narrow streets where everyone knew him too well, Benjamin Rooke’s eldest, a good enough lad but a little fey.  

He had no evidence, but doggedly believed that there would one day be a place, somewhere in the world, for the person he was.

Excerpted from The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville Copyright © 2009 by Kate Grenville. Excerpted by permission of Grove Atlantic, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.