*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
