Seascraper opens with Thomas Flett rising at five in the morning, eating a cooked breakfast made by his mother and pulling on his oilskins. Thomas is 20, though the ache in his bones makes him feel considerably older – a symptom of the hard physical labour of his job. That job is shanking: dredging the seashore for shrimps at low tide using a horsedrawn cart. Thomas does the same work that his grandfather did decades before him and men from the north-west of England have been doing for 500 years. But his heart is no longer in it: the pay is poor and the work is solitary and dull. He dreams of being a folk singer, playing to audiences in pub backrooms and parlours, and, unbeknown to his mother, has been working on some songs.
Benjamin Wood’s novel, which spans two days, brims with atmosphere and detail; you can practically smell the fish guts and seaweed as Thomas stands on the beach and picks over the morning’s haul. The audiobook is narrated by Wood, whose gentle and evocative delivery underlines Thomas’s hard-bitten existence and his quiet longing for a different future.
Coming home one day, Thomas finds a tall, confident American man drinking tea with his mother. Edgar Acheson says he’s a movie director and wants to film on the beach after seeing Thomas at work there; he asks if he would give him a guided tour for a fee of £100. Thomas is initially suspicious, thought pleased at the prospect of money and a break in his routine. But is Acheson really who he says he is?
Available via Penguin Audio, 5hr 22min
Further listening
Enough Said
Alan Bennett, Profile Audio, 16hr 9min
This new diary collection opens with a short audio note from its author reflecting on being out of the habit of narrating his work, so much so “that I’m painfully surprised when I hear my crabbed tones. I feel my readers deserve better.” Hence, the actor Alex Jennings picks up the narration from there.
We Love You, Bunny
Mona Awad, Simon & Schuster Audio, 20hr 13min
This sequel to the wildly popular Bunny, Awad’s horror novel about students at an Ivy League university, finds protagonist Sam plundering the lives of her old college frenemies for her first novel, prompting them to seek dark revenge. Sophie Amoss reads.