A rigmarole about the rise and fall of the shipping industry and romance during World War II


Wefada Marwan is thrust into the reluctant captaincy of the family industry from the world of academia when her older brother was killed in a helicopter accident. She fell in love with her student from Algeria. Elemine is 29 years old, came to Malaysia with a mission to study Islamic finance and found Wefada intellectually stimulating. Aware of their age difference Wefada at 45 years battled to deny her feelings. Throughout her life, Wefada was nurtured in her love and fascination for the sea by her grandmother Fatimah, who descended from the Terengganu royal family. Fatimah fell in love with an Arab, Ben Qortubi who landed on the island and learnt the craft of boat-building which he gradually mastered. They had a son Marwan but their happiness was short-lived with the invasion of Japanese forces. Ben Qortubi was a transformed from a loving, enterprising boat builder and sea merchant to a muted man. He never recovered from the brutal rape of his wife, at the hands of Japanese soldiers. Ben Qortubi later disappeared at sea on a boat he built named The Prau with the Silent Soul. The son born from this crime, was shunned from birth. The dismissive treatment of her uncle Muawiyah by family members bewildered Wefada all her life. Married to Elemine at last, Wefada was deliriously happy. But on a cruise, Haiqal was attacked by pirates in the South China Sea and the story ends with a poser as to whether or not Haiqal survived the attack and how.