Wood Benjamin: Seascraper

*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2025*


'A huge talent' HILARY MANTEL

'A magnificent writer' DOUGLAS STUART

'One of the finest novelists of his generation' THE TIMES

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.

***

MORE PRAISE FOR SEASCRAPER:

'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 story' BOOKER PRIZE 2025 JUDGES

'It's 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 page' GUARDIAN

'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 rippling' SPECTATOR