Like a lazy river, this book ebbs and flows down the Mississippi, detailing the life of a theater troupe. May falls in with them as a seamstress in a twist of fate that will be very telling. It is the days when violent slave traders clashed with the abolitionists in the pursuit of their quarry, each hoping to win their prize. The wide Mississippi is the gulf between freedom and slavery. May is drawn in, and risks her life, and that of her adopted theater family in the quest of what's right. The book moved slowly at first, and I wish that the slavery issues had received greater play earlier in the book, with less time devoted to the theater troupe. Although the characters were interesting, they did not, for the most part, move the story forward. I almost gave up, but I pushed through to a satisfying conclusion.

I really liked this book on so many levels. First and foremost, The Floating Theatre was a pleasure to lose myself in. Martha Conway writes very likeable, colourful characters who get themselves into rather nasty fixes. Politics aside, it's a very compelling story that I found hard to put down.

But of course, this is a book about slavery, so the politics is rather unavoidable.

Seeing the world through May's eyes - who is clearly on the autism spectrum (the very high functioning end) - made for excellent storytelling but also an interesting perspective on the historical slavery debate. May is very literal. She makes few emotional judgements and is oblivious to much of the racial tension felt by her colleagues as they journey daily between the north and south.

Conway manages to weave a study of how average people experience major social upheaval into what is essentially 23-year-old May's coming of age story.

Hugo, the captain of the boat, tries to explain to May that he - and the others on the boat - are not the kind of people who can change laws. He clearly disagrees with slavery, and contends that probably most people do, but their job is provide entertainment, a light relief. Nothing more.

Comfort, May's cousin, accepts a well-paid acting gig speaking against slavery at public gatherings. But May notices that her tone is light, that Comfort can't seem to truly imagine what it is like to be in bondage and doesn't really care.

It seems to May that plenty of people think that slavery is deplorable but are more concerned about their personal business interests than effecting change.

And yet there is Mrs Howard, a bully who is actively campaigning for the freedom of slaves. She woos Comfort into working for her cause and blackmails May into doing the same. May wonders whether all great change is wrought by bullies while everyday 'good' people turn a blind eye for the sake of their own survival.

Ultimately, this is less a book 'about slavery' and more one about the slow and strange ways in which major social changes come about.

There are plenty of echoes in The Floating Theatre for us to listen to in today's tumultuous times. But it's also a really entertaining story if you, you know, prefer to turn a blind eye to all that distasteful social and political stuff...

I was drawn to this book by the description and, I have to admit, the gorgeous cover, but for me the content did not live up to my expectation. What I did enjoy was the story of May and the colourful characters who make up the members of the floating theatre as they travel down river stopping at small towns to give performances to the local people. However, I found the aspect of the book detailing May’s involvement with the ‘underground railway’ unconvincing and a rather lightweight treatment of the issues.

The author has chosen to make her protagonist, May, rather naive, uncomfortable in social situations and someone who takes everything very literally. I was unsure if this was to help explain why May responds as she does to certain events in the narrative or to introduce into the novel a character on the autistic spectrum. I did like when May finally learned to suspend her disbelief and become immersed in what she was seeing on the stage in the way Hugo, the theatre owner, hoped she would.

‘But then, rather quickly if the actors are any good, something happens and somehow you drop into the fiction of the Italian countryside, and there you are. You forget all about the people around you because the only people that exist are the actors on stage, and the only world is the world they are playing out for you. You’ve lost yourself in the fiction.’

Clearly, the same thing should happen with a book but I’m afraid, for me, it did not on this occasion because I was frequently coming across things I found implausible or issues I felt were treated too lightly. If you want an entertaining story set on a floating theatre in 19th century America then this is a book to enjoy. If you want to understand the realities of slavery, the abolition movement and the underground railway, then I think you need to look elsewhere.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Bonnier Zaffre, in return for an honest review. [The book is published under the title The Underground River in the US.]

I’m in two minds about this book - all of the ingredients were there - the theatrical and very unique setting of a showboat on the Ohio river, an insight into the coastal small villages and the people who worked on the border of such a political divide. It just read like a YA book where the issues were skimmed over or treated with such light of touch that I had to remind myself these were actually issues of life or death. I did enjoy the story and the whole idea of the story being written from the pint of view of the ordinary people and the slaves was a brilliant idea. I just wish there had been more meat on the rabbit so to speak. The story of the showboat was brilliantly evoked and atmospheric but the slavery theme didn’t work for me although this in its own right would also have been good.

It's strange to think of a book that deals with slavery and the underground railroad as being charming, but this book really was and it was also serious and suspenseful and a very enjoyable read. A major portion of this book is about the life of a small theater company that lives and performs on a barge-like ship that travels up and down the Ohio River before the Civil War. The north was on one side of the river and the slave-owning south on the other. May Bedloe joined the company as a seamstress and general assistant after she lost all her cash and possessions when the steamboat on which she and her actress cousin Comfort were traveling was destroyed when its boilers exploded. Comfort was taken under the wing of a Cincinnati abolitionist, Mrs. Howard, and her mute, black assistant (a man with unsuspected depths). Mrs. Howard later coerced May into helping slaves escape to the northern states by ferrying them across the river.

I thought the book did a very good job of portraying the conflicted feelings of May, who was a very blunt, honest and law-abiding person who abhorred slavery but was also reluctant to break the law and to put herself and the other members of the Floating Theatre at risk. May is never sure who she can trust with her secrets, and sometimes she guesses wrong. The book also gave an original and interesting glimpse of a theater company of that period. I see that the US edition of this book is called "Underground River" rather than "Floating Theatre". Since the theater portion of the book is at least as significant as the abolition portion, I assume that the change in title is due to the fact that the Underground Railroad is very trendy at the moment, at least in the US. I prefer the other title, but then I'm not a marketer, so what do I know? This book felt very realistic, never melodramatic, and I liked it a lot, despite the occasional awkward transition. I would be happy to read more by this author.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I had high hopes for this: gorgeous cover, theatre, history, anti-slavery... but I found this far too easy a treatment of complex issues. Our heroine seems to be somewhere on the spectrum and her forthright logic is set in opposition to the rhetoric of other characters, both the slave-owners and abolitionists. The setting is interesting, a theatrical company operating from a river boat (think Showboat), and there are plenty of Characters, written with a kind of sub-Dickens gusto.

For all that, I found the book strangely unatmospheric and unengaging. I particularly had an issue with the extremely lightweight treatment of the slavery issue: yes, slaves might be separated from their children, hunted down if they managed to escape, but the realities were far, far more horrific than this - read The Underground Railroad for a harder-hitting and utterly gripping slavery tale.

Good for lazy holidays or when you want something with the ease of chick-lit with slightly more substance.

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