About the Book
FROM THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE GALLOWS POLE COMES A POWERFUL NEW NOVEL
A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
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‘What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous’ - Max Porter, author of Lanny
‘Glorious ... Leaves an indelible impression ... A moving and subtle novel in many ways, infused with a love of the minute pleasures in life, and the lasting regrets’ – Scotland on Sunday
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One summer following the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham village. Sixteen and the son of a coal miner, he makes his way across the northern countryside until he reaches the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay. There he meets Dulcie, an eccentric, worldly, older woman who lives in a ramshackle cottage facing out to sea.
Staying with Dulcie, Robert’s life opens into one of rich food, sea-swimming, sunburn and poetry. The two come from different worlds, yet as the summer months pass, they form an unlikely friendship that will profoundly alter their futures.
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An i Book of the Year
A Reading Agency Book of the Year
A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick
A BBC Radio 4 'Book at Bedtime'
An Observer Pick for 2019
About the Author :
Benjamin Myers was born in Durham in 1976. His novel The Gallows Pole received a Roger Deakin Award and won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Beastings won the Portico Prize for Literature and Pig Iron won the Gordon Burn Prize, while Richard was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. He has also published poetry, crime novels and short fiction, while his journalism has appeared in publications including, among others, the Guardian, New Statesman, Caught by the River and New Scientist. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.
benmyers.com / @BenMyers1
Review :
This quiet, lyrical novel confirms a powerful new voice
This is a poetic book with a winning generosity of spirit, moving from a folksy celebration of the rural north to a revelation of the broader horizons that can come from reading and some serious culture
It’s a poignant story, and Myers’ descriptions of the countryside are wonderful
One of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation … Unfurling at the unhurried pace of a fern, it’s an evocatively lyrical paean to the countryside – deeply felt and closely observed
A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ... He’s such a good and brave writer … there’s a lot of heart in this book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it’s so much more hopeful than that … there’s light in this landscape ... A very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of ways
Every page is studded with descriptive jewels … Deeply attuned to the natural world … Poetic … This book is a sensual pleasure … It’s about the forever things: good food, and art, and friendship, and how those pleasures can redeem us, even during the harshest of times
Quietly gripping … Written with Myers’s customary grit and brio … A welcome advance, one that sees Myers effortlessly extending his range
What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It’s gorgeous
A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place
Myers’ prose and poetry makes a celebration of the "new Ondaatje" a far less preposterous mantle than it may seem
Glorious ... Leaves an indelible impression ... A moving and subtle novel in many ways, infused with a love of the minute pleasures in life, and the lasting regrets
Imbued with all the evocative rhythms of the passing seasons. This is what folk music would look like if it came in the written form
Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our times, making The Offing one of the must-read books of the year
It reminds me of a time when David Bowie could serve up something new with almost every album ... the book portrays an uncanny feminine touch and though the trip is gentle, there are deep undercurrents in this heart of a new rural darkness
A tender, tragic but warming story of love and living amid the flux of time, the sea and the seasons, The Offing is both beautiful and beautifully told. Through its pages, Myers carefully and thoughtfully reaffirms the values and riches of human connection, freedom and the joy of living on your own terms
A gorgeous summer song of a book, quietly and precisely what the world needs, calling friendship and gentleness from people, place and language, The Offing is about the best of us. It is to be treasured and passed on
Intense and evocative
Ben Myers once again writes a rich backdrop of the natural world for this deeply tender, timely and necessary story about the power of relationships across the boundaries of age, class and gender. Everyone reading this book of hope will wish that at sixteen they too had met a Dulcie Piper
Beautiful and evocative landscape writing, as you’d expect, but also a sensitive exploration of love, growing up, friendship and becoming an artist. Dulcie Piper is one of the best characters I’ve read in ages and I already miss her
Myers’ eye for the natural world is as good as ever … A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place
‘Arresting and profoundly moving ... A state-of-the-nation novel, driven by love and concern ... A lament for the crumbling best of England. This a novel for our times’
A tight, lyrical and almost painfully truthful novel shot through with melancholy, desire and a fierce longing for the countryside … It confirms Myers’ place as one of the best writers of nature at work today
