I received an Advance Listening copy of this book thanks to the publisher and Libro.FM. All opinions are my own.
I began listening to Seascraper just before the winter holiday and so even though it is a short novel – just over five hours listening time – I didn’t finish it until early 2026. Even with some big interruptions of time though, the novel felt very cohesive and every time I dove back in, I immediately was immersed in its atmosphere.
Thomas Flett is a shanker, a young man in his early twenties, scraping the seashore to collect shrimp. He does this with horse and cart, just like his grandfather did, the last of the shankers to do so in the old ways. He lives with his mother, supporting their household, and though he dreams of playing music, he is afraid to share those dreams with anyone more than his friend, Harry. Thomas hides his guitar in the barn and continues with his simple life, believing that this is all the world can contain for him.
But when an American film director spots Thomas on the beach and believes that this northern England seaside town is the perfect spot to film his next movie, Thomas’ life might be about to change. Thomas strikes up an unlikely friendship of sorts with Edgar Atchison. Atchison is gregarious, rattling off big names and ideas, full of energy and art, and Thomas begins to think about life outside of Longferry.
The actual action of this book is fairly compressed and once the reveal of sorts takes place, there’s very little denouement. But what Wood puts down on the page is powerful. The location, the characterization, the sense of dreams and possibilities, are all there and masterfully done. Thomas and Edgar are two very different characters and while we stick close to Thomas’ perspective and life, both men are vivid and realistic. It’s easy to picture exactly where they are, how they might stand, what they’re doing with their hands etc.
The real jewel of the story though is the location and this unique job of shanking or collecting shrimp. Thomas performs this job in a manner that is quickly dying as horses and carts are replaced with machinery, but there’s still a sense that even a more automated version of this job would be difficult. It’s cold and wet and foggy and there are dangerous patches on the beach. I found it easy to picture these long, bleak, damp stretches of sand that are the beach when the tide is pulled back so far. We don’t shrimp like that where I live but we do have beaches like that. And the descriptions of a small town that is full of beach-going tourists in the summer and then sort of rundown and rainy the rest of the year, felt very familiar too.
I listened to this in audio, read by the author. I’ve only come across a couple of fiction audiobooks read by the author (this seems more common in non-fiction) but so far it’s always been a pleasant surprise. There’s something about knowing all the voices and inflections are exactly how the author imagined when he wrote the story. For most of the book, it didn’t seem like the audio made much difference but toward the end we get to hear Thomas’ own music and hear Wood sings as Thomas’ voice. This was quite a lovely addition and added a lot to the power of this scene that, ultimately, the climax hinges on. It felt like a treat to get to hear that particular song exactly as Wood envisioned it.
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