A Sermon

*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025*<BR>*WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARDS 2025*<BR>*WINNER OF THE WINSTON GRAHAM HISTORICAL PRIZE 2026*<BR>*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026*<BR><BR>'A huge talent' HILARY MANTEL<BR><BR>'A magnificent writer' DOUGLAS STUART<BR><BR>'One of the finest novelists of his generation' THE TIMES<BR><BR>Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa's trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.<BR><BR>When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?<BR><BR>Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.<BR><BR>***<BR><BR>MORE PRAISE FOR SEASCRAPER:<BR><BR>'A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story' BOOKER PRIZE 2025 JUDGES<BR><BR>'It's a senuous treat, this novel . . . A language of the sea washes over every page' ROSS RAISIN<BR><BR>'A tale so richly atmospheric you can almost taste the tang of brine and inhale the sea fog . . . [Wood] transforms the quotidian into the poetic, making the exactitude of each task sing on the page' GUARDIAN<BR><BR>'Wood is up there with the very best. He packs more poetry into his opening paragraph than many a Booker-winner achieves in their entire oeuvre' JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR, THE TIMES<BR><BR>'Seascraper shimmers, salt-flecked and rippling' SPECTATOR

Longferry, England, Sechzigerjahre. Thomas Flett ist Anfang zwanzig und lebt mit seiner Mutter in ärmlichen Verhältnissen. Seinen Vater hat er nie kennengelernt. Die Schule hat er abgebrochen, er verdingt sich als Krabbenfischer: ein Handwerk, das ihn sein Großvater gelehrt hat. Niemand kennt das Meer und seine Gezeiten so gut wie Thomas. Früh am Morgen bei Niedrigwasser fährt er mit Pferd und Kutsche los, um sich den Unterhalt für den Tag zu verdienen, ein Leben von der Hand in den Mund. Heimlich lernt er Gitarre spielen und träumt von Joan, der Schwester seines besten Freundes. Aber für Träume ist kein Platz in Longferry. Als der amerikanische Regisseur Edgar Acheson in der Stadt eintrifft, wird Thomas' vermeintlich einfaches Leben erschüttert. Er bekommt eine Ahnung von der großen, weiten Welt, davon, was da draußen auf ihn warten könnte, und schließt Freundschaft mit dem Mann, der in jeder Hinsicht anders ist als er. Ein Funke in ihm ist entzündet - aber nichts ist so, wie es scheint. Nur eines ist sicher: Am nächsten Morgen bei Niedrigwasser wird Thomas wieder dem Ruf des Meeres folgen.Für 'Der Krabbenfischer' wurde Benjamin Wood mit dem Nero Book Awards 2025 und Platz 11 des SPIEGEL Buchpreis 2025 ausgezeichnet und stand auf der Longlist des renommierten Booker Prize 2025.

*WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2025*<BR>*LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025*<BR>*WINNER OF THE WINSTON GRAHAM HISTORICAL PRIZE 2026*<BR>*SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2026*<BR><BR>'A book about honest work and modest dreams, about sons and their duty, and those brief, wonderful moments when we glimpse the possibility of living a different life. Benjamin Wood is a magnificent writer and I intend to read everything he has written.' DOUGLAS STUART, author of JOHN OF JOHN and SHUGGIE BAIN<BR><BR>'A book about dreams, an exploration of class and family, a celebration of the power and the glory of music, a challenge to the limits of realism, and - stunningly - a love story' BOOKER PRIZE 2025 JUDGES<BR><BR>Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa's trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.<BR><BR>When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?<BR><BR>Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.<BR><BR>***<BR><BR>MORE PRAISE FOR SEASCRAPER:<BR><BR>'A huge talent' HILARY MANTEL<BR><BR>'It's a senuous treat, this novel . . . A language of the sea washes over every page' ROSS RAISIN<BR><BR>'A tale so richly atmospheric you can almost taste the tang of brine and inhale the sea fog . . . [Wood] transforms the quotidian into the poetic, making the exactitude of each task sing on the page' GUARDIAN<BR><BR>'Wood is up there with the very best. He packs more poetry into his opening paragraph than many a Booker-winner achieves in their entire oeuvre' JOHANNA THOMAS-CORR, THE TIMES<BR><BR>'Seascraper shimmers, salt-flecked and rippling' SPECTATOR

Ben Wood is a larger than life figure, an American architect who re-imagined both the heart of New York and the heart of Shanghai and in this unique memoir, he tells a thousand outrageous and wonderful stories from the back blocks of the American South in the 1950s through to the glittering skylines of the 21st century. His design of the Xintiandi area of Shanghai set the standard for urban renewal across all of China's cities, but that's just the beginning of the amazing tales he has to tell in Into The Dragon's Mouth. A post-war Huckleberry Finn growing up in Georgia, Ben drove across the country while in high school, partook in the Summer of Love, and flew Phantom fighter jets with the USAF in Europe at the height of the Cold War. But his life's work has been the re-imagining of urban life. Ben's approach to architectural design is unique and the stories around all he has done are colorful, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven. Through this marvelous book, redolent of the style of the great Southern story-tellers, Ben Wood weaves a deep wisdom and philosophy, as well as perspectives on China and the United States from one who has seen and done far more than most.

Ben Wood is a larger than life figure, an American architect who re-imagined both the heart of New York and the heart of Shanghai and in this unique memoir, he tells a thousand outrageous and wonderful stories from the back blocks of the American South in the 1950s through to the glittering skylines of the 21st century. His design of the Xintiandi area of Shanghai set the standard for urban renewal across all of China's cities, but that's just the beginning of the amazing tales he has to tell in Into The Dragon's Mouth. A post-war Huckleberry Finn growing up in Georgia, Ben drove across the country while in high school, partook in the Summer of Love, and flew Phantom fighter jets with the USAF in Europe at the height of the Cold War. But his life's work has been the re-imagining of urban life. Ben's approach to architectural design is unique and the stories around all he has done are colorful, thought-provoking and emotionally-driven. Through this marvelous book, redolent of the style of the great Southern story-tellers, Ben Wood weaves a deep wisdom and philosophy, as well as perspectives on China and the United States from one who has seen and done far more than most.