Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
Long listed for Booker Prize 2025.
Beautifully written.
Thomas Flett is a shrimp fisherman who uses his grandfather’s old-time horse drawn dredger on the low tide flats in north England around 1960. Tom is young and loves books but has been working the beach as a “shanker” since he was 13. He looks scruffy and smells bad, making out a living to support himself and his single mother.
An American film maker, Edgar, arrives and wants to employ Tom as local colour for an 1880’s film he is making. The two days over which the book is set change Tom’s life trajectory. There is a definite tension around Edgar’s character and his motives: the gun Tom finds, and the quick stand threat on the shore. The descriptions are wonderful and Tom’s character development is very enjoyable.
4.5/5 Stars