PaulaJ

By PaulaJ

To the end

I have been working my way through the Booker Longlist and am loving every minute of the reading. I have now read 6/13 and have enjoyed every one - there are some really good books here. Whether I will get to any more remains to be seen. 

One book that I started reading yesterday took me by surprise. I bought it along with the others and, apart from admiring the cover, thought nothing more about it. It didn’t seem to be being mentioned by anyone. Until yesterday, when I realised many people had read it and loved it, were putting it to the top of their lists, and amazingly it is currently favourite to win (according to the betting odds). 

Last night I became engrossed in Seacraper by Benjamin Wood, an author I knew nothing about. This morning I just had to finish it. So, this is the reading of the last few pages at 8.30 this morning, with the sun casting shadows of the trees outside the window. Gordon had already set out to catch a train as he was gong on a rail trip with two friends. So I had a quiet half hour to finish the book. 

I absolutely love this book. It is a beautiful book in itself (just look at the gorgeous cover in extras); the writing is powerful and poetic. The evocation of the sea and sands (think Southport way) is astonishing. Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker, scraping shrimps from the water’s edge as the tide turns. He dreams of more, he wants to play his guitar, he wants . . . 

Haunting, timeless - brilliant. 

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