LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD An enthralling novel about the corruption of power
and the power of corruption from the award-winning bestselling author of The Innocents
"POTENT...A VIBRANT HISTORICAL NARRATIVE"— The New Yorker " A FLAWLESSLY CRAFTED NARRATIVE"
— Wall Street Journal "MASTERPIECE" — Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review) "CEASELESSLY
ENTERTAINING" — Kirkus (Starred Review) "ONE OF OUR BEST WRITERS" —Booklist (Starred Review)
In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline Abe Strapp is about to marry the
daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to
throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos. That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening
salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms each
fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery each seeking a measure of
revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals
further each year into vendettas and violence the community is increasingly divided and even
the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides with devastating
consequences. Through merciless seasons of uncertainty and want through predatory storms and
pandemics and marauding privateers it is the human heart that reveals itself to be the most
formidable and unpredictable adversary for each person drawn inevitably and helplessly into
that endless feud. Compulsively readable and uncompromising The Adversary is a masterful
evocation of a lost time and a shadowed mirror to our modern politics of grievance and
retribution.
