On the stormy coast of England in 1928, a whale washes ashore. Twelve-year-old Cristabel Seagrave, orphaned and overlooked, claims it as her own. From its bones, she builds a theatre—a stage for imagination, rebellion, and a childhood of quiet resistance.
Raised in a crumbling manor under the indifference of her stepparents, Cristabel finds escape through performance and story. But when war arrives, the stakes become real. As an adult, she joins the British secret service, stepping into a role far more dangerous than any she once played under the whale’s ribs.
Sweeping from childhood theatrics to the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied France, The Whalebone Theatre is a dazzling debut about courage, identity, and the stories we carry through the fire of history.
