The Castaway by W.W. Jacobs — A Shipwrecked Husband Returns, and a Fortune-Teller Knows Too Much

About this episode

The episode features W.W. Jacobs' lighthearted story about a sailor's unexpected return home after a shipwreck.

Another perfect Summer Story from Litreading. A sailor given up for drowned walks back through his own shop door, three years gone, with a fresh scar and a long story about shipwreck, islands, and rescue. His wife weeps with joy. His mother-in-law only sniffs. And across town an old fortune-teller waits with a little china bowl and a great deal to say about where the man has really been. "The Castaway" is W.W. Jacobs at his lightest, a small seaside comedy of belief, suspicion, and a homecoming that goes nowhere near the way anyone planned. The truth here is a slippery thing, and the teller may not be the one you expect. W.W. Jacobs (1863 to 1943) was an English writer best known today for the horror classic "The Monkey's Paw," though in his own time he was celebrated mostly for comic stories, many of them set among sailors, dock workers, and the small coastal towns they came home to. "The Castaway" shows that lighter, sharper side, the wit that made him a popular favorite long before a single cursed wish made him famous. Litreading is part of Short Storyverses , a network of fiction podcasts gathering the strange, the funny, and the quietly unsettling, all of it read aloud. Find…

People in this episode

Host: Short Storyverses

Topics covered

• comedy
• shipwreck
• homecoming
• belief
• suspicion

Keywords

• W.W. Jacobs
• The Castaway
• short story
• comedy
• shipwreck
• homecoming
• sailor
• belief
• suspicion

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Litreading, Short Storyverses

Books & works: The Castaway, The Monkey's Paw

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