The North Line
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- ¥1,600
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- ¥1,600
発行者による作品情報
*** Recipient of the Prix Gens de Mer (Mariner's Prize) ***A college student in need of quick money finds work on an Alaskan fishing boat in the unforgiving Bering Sea; little did he realize the dark-hearted exploration he was enjoining."The North Line is a ruggedly erudite story that combines the best of the individualism of Jack London with the introspective ruminations of Raymond Carver."—S.A. Cosby New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed"A frightening story of tough men pushed to the brink... I couldn't put it down."—David SedarisEven at the ragged edge of civilization, some lines should not be crossed.Everyone believes Adam to be something he's not. Sometimes that's because he's told them a story. Sometimes he's told himself one. But when Adam joins an Alaskan fishing crew that's promising quick money, the dangerous work and harsh lifestyle strip away all fabrications and force a dark-hearted exploration of who he really is.On the unforgiving Bering Sea, Adam finds the adventure and authenticity of a fisherman's life revelatory. The labor required to seize bounty from the ocean invigorates him, and the often crude comradery accompanies a welcome, hard-earned wisdom. But when a strike threatens the entire season and violence stalks the waves, Adam is thrust into a struggle for survival at the edge of the world, where evolutionary and social forces collide for outcomes beyond anyone's control.In his riveting debut novel, Matt Riordan pairs personal experiences with a master storyteller's eye in a piercing examination of the quest for identity in the face of tempests within and without.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Riordan debuts with an irresistible portrait of commerical fishermen fighting for survival in early 1990s Alaska. After Massachusetts college student Adam gets caught selling ecstasy pills and loses his lacrosse scholarship, he sets off for Alaska to earn his senior year tuition. Despite having no experience, he's hired aboard the well-worn trawler Miami Vice and embarks with captain Nash and fellow crew member Cole for the Bering Sea. Adam, who's desperate to avoid dropping out of college and returning to his Podunk hometown in Ohio, takes to the work eagerly. The first major sign of trouble comes when the Vice catches fire, forcing the fishermen to sell their haul to a nearby tender whose crew Cole regards as "pirate scum." With the boat out of commission, Adam boards the Nerka, this time with Vice owner Kaid serving as captain. Other fishermen go on strike as the Nerka departs, protesting unsustainably low prices, but the unscrupulous Kaid presses on, roping Adam and Nash into a treacherous scheme that he lays out in a vivid soliloquy ("Some guys, they end up in the army, charging across some desert somewhere to rescue an oil well. You don't want to be that guy. You want to be the guy who owns the oil well that the other guy is sent to die for"). The novel's colorful dialogue and relentless pacing evoke the uncompromising headwinds in Adam's path. This is a triumph of gritty realism.
