Seascraper

*WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025*
*WINNER OF THE WINSTON GRAHAM HISTORICAL PRIZE 2026*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026*

A book about honest work and modest dreams, about sons and their duty, and those brief, wonderful moments when we glimpse the possibility of living a different life. Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written. DOUGLAS STUART, author of JOHN OF JOHN and SHUGGIE BAIN

A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love storyBOOKER PRIZE 2025 JUDGES

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.

When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?

Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.

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MORE PRAISE FOR SEASCRAPER:

A huge talent HILARY MANTEL

Its a senuous treat, this novel . . . A language of the sea washes over every page ROSS RAISIN

A tale so richly atmospheric you can almost taste the tang of brine and inhale the sea fog . . . [Wood] transforms the quotidian into the poetic, making the exactitude of each task sing on the pageGUARDIAN

‘Wood is up there with the very best. He packs more poetry into his opening paragraph than many a Booker-winner achieves in their entire oeuvre’ JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR, THE TIMES

Seascraper shimmers, salt-flecked and ripplingSPECTATOR