SEASCRAPER

A young, sour fisherman stumbles upon an opportunity to broaden his horizons.

Wood’s fifth novel, a Booker Prize finalist, concerns a day in the life of Thomas Flett, a 20-year-old man who, circa 1962, is grudgingly resigned to a fate gathering shrimp on the beach during low tide in his English seaside town. He has friends and a girl he’s working up the nerve to ask out, but mostly he’s locked into his work and life at home with his mother; his father died in World War II, and he learned the shrimping trade from his late grandfather. Thomas is an avid reader and budding songwriter, but he sees these creative pursuits as irrelevant, even embarrassing, given the tight family budget. That changes with the arrival of Edgar Acheson, a filmmaker who hires Thomas to guide him around the shore and help him consider the location as the site for his next movie, which he says Henry Fonda might sign on with. Edgar’s fresh perspective on the town—not to mention some pocket money—brightens Thomas’ spirits, as he reconsiders performing at an open mic, asking that girl out, and generally making something of himself. But is Edgar all he claims to be? And what if he isn’t? This all feels slight in summary, but Wood gives it an elegance and interiority that exposes how much one person can change the way we look at things. As for whether his run-in with Edgar is life-changing for Thomas, that’s a yes-and-no proposition. But Wood works in multiple plot twists in ways that are both inventive and realistic, suggesting that strangers aren’t always who they seem to be but can have a positive influence all the same.

A nuanced, gently romantic novel about ambition and identity.