The Stranger in the Lifeboat uses an episodic mode of storytelling structured around the reading of a diary, which narrates past events in the present day, interspersed with a number of news reports that span the range of the timeline in which the story takes place. Composing the story in this way does at least two things. First, it allows the author to write a single story which occurs in two different time periods without resorting to simply setting them back-to-back, chronologically. Second, the shifting back and forth between two different time periods, which also happen to be two different locations, makes for a narrative that seems to move twice as fast is it might otherwise.

In composing the story this way, the author creates a sense of shifting priorities and expectations, mirroring the shifting realities of the characters that inhabit the novel. In addition, the novel takes its place among other great novels that use similar narrative devices. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the most famous examples, bringing the narrative to life through a series of journal entries, letters, phonograph transcripts, and news bulletins. Shifting back and forth in time and location creates an almost never-ending series of cliffhangers, drawing the reader further along and deeper into the story.