Published 17th July 2025 by Viking.
From the cover of the book:
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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Thomas lives a hard life with his mother in Longferry, following in his grandfather's footsteps as a traditional cart shanker. Fishing for shrimp with a horse and cart is brutal, dirty work, and it provides little more than a poor living for him and his mother.
What Thomas longs for is the opportunity to become a folk singer, and to find a way to impress Joan Wyeth down the street, but he cannot see a way to make either dream come true. But then an American visitor called Edgar arrives at his door, promising him the chance to become involved in a Hollywood film production, and Thomas sees a different future beckoning...
Benjamin Wood's atmospheric novel packs a powerful punch, which is very laudable for a book of under two hundred pages. It follows twenty-year-old shanker Thomas over two days in his life which provide a real turning point for a young man who longs for change.
Wood introduces Thomas as he goes about his early morning ritual dragging the perilous sands in the bay for shrimp, as his grandfather did before him, in a profession he was drawn into out of the necessity to support himself and his single mother. It is far from the life Thomas wishes he was living, but he has had to cast his dreams aside to face harsh reality.
Then comes a transformative twist in Thomas' fate. He gets caught up in Edgar's infectious enthusiasm for an adaptation of an unusual book, and takes him on a tour of the sands that Edgar is convinced would make the perfect location for the film. During their foggy adventure, fraught with danger, something strange happens to Thomas that gives him the means to break out of his claustrophobic life... but things are not quite as they appear.
Wood's book is curiously timeless, and it is easy to think that this is a historical fiction novel set in an age long ago, particularly given Thomas' living conditions and his traditional way of life. However, as the story develops you begin to see that he is actually living in post-war Britain (probably 1960s), which works beautifully with the theme of being stuck in the past.
Edgar becomes the catalyst for Thomas to confront the way he is caught between the life that has been set out for him, and the one he wants to pursue, and what follows is wreathed in lovely threads about belonging, dislocation, sacrifice, and complicated family relationships. There are subtle undercurrents at play between Thomas and his mother that cleverly echo the danger out on the sands too.
What begins as a bleak story ends on a hopeful note, via an original speculative twist that I absolutely did not see coming, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Wood's writing is wonderful and I cannot wait to explore more of his literary novels.
Seascraper is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Viking for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.
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