Cove
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD 2017
Out at sea, in a sudden storm, a man is struck by lightning. When he wakes, injured and adrift on a kayak, his memory of who he is and how he came to be there is all but shattered. Now he must pit himself against the pain and rely on his instincts to get back to shore, and to the woman he dimly senses waiting for his return. With its taut narrative and its wincingly visceral portrait of a man locked in an uneven struggle with the forces of nature, this is a powerful new work from one of the most distinctive voices in British fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this genre-bending novel, Jones (The Long Dry) presents a harrowing tale of resilience. An unnamed man kayaks out into a bay one morning to spread his dead father's ashes. When a sudden storm rolls in, he is struck by lightning. He awakes with amnesia and severe injuries. Possessing only a limited amount of supplies and the fleeting memory of a woman and child waiting for him to return, he forms a plan to get back to land. Though brief, the book is immersive in its rich, poetic descriptions of nature ("The lightning is not the strike. It is the local effect of the strike. The air around it explodes.") and cleverly shifts between second and third person. At times the lyricism hurts comprehension with mixed metaphors and awkward similes, but the quick, sharp sentences and use of white space heighten narrative tension. As the protagonist fights the urge to drift away, collides with wildlife, and loses all sense of time, Jones's narrative becomes increasingly momentous. This is a gripping story with a unique style that reflects the remarkable limits of the human spirit.
