The Rebellious Tide
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Sebastien's search for his father leads him to a ship with a dangerous secret.
"A propulsive, unpredictable adventure."
— Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo
Sebastien has heard only stories about his father, a mysterious sailor who abandoned his pregnant mother thirty years ago. But when his mother dies after a lifetime of struggle, he becomes obsessed with finding an explanation—perhaps even revenge.
The father he’s never met is Kostas, the commanding officer of a luxury liner sailing the Mediterranean. Posing as a member of the ship’s crew, Sebastien stalks his unwitting father in search of answers to why he disappeared so many years ago.
After a public assault triggers outrage among the ship’s crew, Sebastien finds himself entangled in a revolt against the oppressive ruling class of officers. As the clash escalates between the powerful and the powerless, Sebastien uncovers something his father has hidden deep within the belly of the ship—a disturbing secret that would force him to confront everything he’s always wondered and feared about his own identity.
The Rebellious Tide is a story about anger and blame, examining the tension between the history we're born with and the history we write for ourselves.
Praise for The Rebellious Tide
2022 finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction
— The Publishing Triangle
"A propulsive, unpredictable adventure by a master storyteller. Tightly plotted with complex characters, it's a cinematic novel about identity, family, terrible secrets, romantic love, and immeasurable loss. Eddy Boudel Tan is a rare talent who can deftly weave tenderness and heartbreak with high-seas action and nail-biting drama into a perfectly paced narrative."
— Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo
"What I love about Eddy Boudel Tan’s writing is his willingness to explore complicated lives and complex hearts. A perfect blend of mystery, family secrets, and romance, The Rebellious Tide is an ambitious and layered novel that pulls you under its wave in the best possible way.”
— Brian Francis, author of Natural Order and Fruit
"An impassioned meditation on alienation and belonging, power and violence, and the marks mothers and fathers leave upon their children. Sebastien Goh is a nuanced and wholly original protagonist. I will be thinking about him and his journey for a long time to come."
— Alexis Schaitkin, author of Saint X
"The Rebellious Tide plumbs the depths of what ties us to our parents, and how destiny can—and sometimes must—be overcome. With clear and filmic prose, complex characters, and a keen grasp of the emotional and psychological struggles of young adults finding their way in life, Boudel Tan establishes himself as an exciting voice in Canadian literary fiction."
— Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society
"The emotional punches land with all the fury of Boudel Tan's characters’ anger, betrayal and thirst for answers & reckoning."
— P.J. Vernon, author of Bath Haus and When You Find Me
"Sexual and cultural identities are explored in a novel that doesn’t close its eyes to the darkness, even as it celebrates a world that is vast and filled with adventure."
— Quill & Quire
"Right on the heels of his 2020 debut novel After Elias, Vancouver’s Eddy Boudel Tan has assembled a lively and memorable cast of characters and placed them in a powder-keg situation on the placid waters of the Mediterranean. Interweaving frivolity and politics—along with romance, strife, one-liners and assorted heist-caper schemes—Boudel Tan delivers a story that’s enticing and smile-inducing."
— Vancouver Sun
"An exhilarating and immersive novel filled with adventure, suspense and, above all, humanity."
— Xtra Magazine
"A rising star in CanLit."
— Winnipeg Free Press
"A tautly written, thoroughly compelling saga of identity and survival, The Rebellious Tide will keep the reader hooked to the very last page."
— Midwest Book Review
"The Rebellious Tide is littered—in the best possible way—with complexity and intrigue, delving into the significance of sounds, the strengths and struggles of anger, and the challenges of forming an individual identity among conformists."
— The Ormsby Review
"An exploration of familial and romantic relationships and the simmering rage of injustice, with an explosive secret at its centre."
— The Tyee
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