Hanley, James Levine

Polish seaman Felix Levine is the sole survivor of his ship when the vessel (the fictitious tramp freighter AURORA) is sunk circa 1944 – presumably by a German U-boat – off the coast of Britain and he swims ashore to supposed safety. Rendered paperless by his ordeal and fearing that he will be interned for the duration of the War, the mariner flees inland to a small English town. There he looks for temporary sanctuary; instead Levine meets up with an extremely neurotic female evacuee from Blitz-wracked London with whom he enters into a decidedly unbalanced relationship that culminates in an ill-advised civil marriage. Levine’s only real desire, though, is to get back to the coast, find another ship and return to sea; he is continually thwarted in this goal by the maddeningly clinging woman he has married (a woman twice his age). In a moment of sudden, violent rage, the seaman attempts to break free from their masochistic relationship, and, grabbing his prized sailor’s knife, murders the unfortunate woman by stabbing her to death.