Book Description

This is the story of empty oceans and the men who fish them. It's the story of Rosaline, a New England fishing community facing the loss of its traditional way of life, struggling against the imposition of fishing quotas, the closing of the local cannery and the encroachment of the heritage industry, which exploits with nostalgia a way of life before it has even given up its last breath. It's the story of the denizens of Rosaline: John Fitz and his best friend Chris who work on John's father's fishing boat, The Pearl; barmaid Kate, indifferent mother and neglected wife of Chris, and Yve, Chris's sister, who is John's longtime girlfriend, but who, at twenty-nine, sees life passing her by. When a new crew of sailors come to town to work on the restoration of a schooner destined to be the main attraction of the maritime museum, tensions in the town, between friends and even in families, reach breaking point, and the fishermen of The Pearl set out on one last desperate, dangerous and hopeless expedition. The Width of the Sea is the story of good people who do a bad thing for a good reason and who find that when things go badly they must somehow find redemption. Eschewing the sentimental or melancholy, it is an exhilarating, resonant and powerfully written novel that presents, through the experiences of one community, a dilemma that is universal.