Below Deck

Hardcastle, Sophie
Sophie Hardcastle is a twenty-five-year-old author, artist, screenwriter and academic. She has worked as a research assistant in the English Faculty of the University of Oxford, and studied as a Provost's Scholar at Worcester College, also at the University of Oxford. Previously, in Australia, Sophie completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours at the University of Sydney, graduating with First Class Honours and an Academic Merit Award. Sophie is the author of Running Like China (2015), and Breathing Under Water (2016). In Australia, her books were longlisted for national book awards and made lists such as DYMOCKS' Best Books of 2016. She has toured internationally as an author and as a mental health spokesperson. In 2017, she was made a World Mental Health Ambassador. Sophie has travelled to Antarctica, Italy, France and Switzerland for artist-residencies, and has travelled widely for creative research. In 2018, Sophie co-wrote and co-directed the Australian miniseries, Cloudy River. Produced by Studio Unko, the series is supported by Screen Australia and Queer Screen, and is represented by Escapade Media. Sophie's forthcoming novel, Below Deck, will be published around the world from 2020.

When 21-year-old Oli sets sail from Australia she embarks on a trip that will open her eyes to life's possibilities. Some years later, fluent in the language of the ocean, she is the only female crew member on-board a yacht delivery to New Zealand. There, in the darkness below deck, she learns something new: at sea, no one can hear you scream.

Below Deck is about the moments that haunt us, that fan out like ripples through the deep. It is a novel about the vagaries of consent, about who has the space to speak and who is believed.

A powerful novel of one wide-eyed young woman's experience of ill-treatment at the hands of men - and the aftermath.