Louis Begley is the author of the best selling novel, 'About Schmidt'. Shipwreck is a suspenseful tale of a deeply flawed charachter and the desperate measures he has taken to shield his wife from the truth of his torrid affair with a French journalist. "Shipwreck is at once a classic, even Jamesian novel of character and a highly erotic, modern thriller-disturbing, mesmerizing -intensely readable and even soul-shaking". - Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World "Compellingly and compulsively told - catches our attention and holds it fast.' Merle Rubin, Los Angeles Times