I’m not quite sure what to make of this novella, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize but did not make the shortlist. It’s an atmospheric, closely observed story set in the 1950s that seems as if it is from an earlier time. I read it for Novellas in November.
Thomas Flatt is carrying on the difficult work followed by his grandfather, scraping the sea bottom at low tide for shrimp. He is the only man left doing this grueling job the old-fashioned way, with a horse and wagon, and the pickings are getting slimmer. He didn’t choose this path but was made to quit school to help his grandfather before he died. He lives with his demanding mother, but he has a secret desire to perform music at a local folk club.
One evening he comes home to find a stranger with his mother, an American named Edgar Acheson. He claims to be a movie director and produces as proof a cover of a movie magazine with a photo of his younger self. He wants to make a movie using the dismal fall sea as the setting, and he wants to pay Thomas, as an expert on the beach, to help him find locations. And indeed, the beach at low tide can be treacherous. He gives Thomas a check for £100, an astonishing amount, and arranges for him to take him with his horse and wagon that night.
And that’s pretty much all I want to say about the plot except that it holds surprises. Events happen that allow Thomas to explore feelings about the father he never met and to consider a new path for himself.
This novella was moody and minutely observes the details of Thomas’s exhausting job. It is the novella’s later events that leave me not knowing what to think about it.
What? Me Read? 
Thanks for taking part in our Buddy Read! I really enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of this one.
Oops! I didn’t notice the buddy read, too!
Thanks for joining in with our Buddy Read! I enjoyed the atmosphere of this one.
Ok, you’ve got me intrigued – I want to know how it ended! Maybe it’ll make it’s way onto my list…
You left us with a cliff hanger there, which make me curious. The e-book version on my reading app is only available in March next year. I have asked for a notification when it has arrived.
You’ll have to tell me what you think of it.
I’m reading it now, and yeah… I’m not sure what to make of it. Just got to the quicksand bit… hm…
I read Bookish Beck’s review of this and decided I might want to try one Wood’s other works first. I’ve never read anything by him. So I decided to add The Bellwether Revivals to my TBR. Rebecca said it was one of her favorites of his works.
I might try that one.
I’m reading this at the moment as well and now that I’ve read your last sentence I have to go and finish it!
Good!
I came here looking for your Book Pairings post and got hooked reading this one. Cathy loved this and I thought when I read her review it sounded a bit like the Roy Jacobsen Unseen which I see you’ve linked to as well. Thanks so much.
Yes, maybe a little bit.
I’ve just finished reading this today. I enjoyed it, although I wasn’t really expecting it to go in the direction it did towards the end!
I don’t think anyone would expect it!