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Thomas‘s life is made up of unending labor with every day almost exactly like the last and no real hope for something more. When a Hollywood producer comes on the scene there is suddenly a chance that maybe life could be different. This is the quietest of the #bookerlonglist titles I have read but the writing is so detailed and evocative that what is at heart a simple story becomes so much more. This would make my shortlist with ease.

My 11th #Booker is one I really fell for and adore. Thomas Flett scrapes for shrimp at low tide with a horse and nets. He's feels old, but he‘s only 20. Then someone comes and gets him inspired.

That prose. We get excited when Tom gets excited, reserved when he's suspicious, won over when he's somehow won over, and we're steady and accepting when he is. And yet it's never too much.

I feel good recommending it to anyone.
#Booker2025

Had the afternoon off yesterday, so it was a perfect excuse to finish this excellent booker longlisted story in the pub. Set in a northwestern sea village, Tom Flett drags the dangerous beaches, where the sand can swallow a person every morning for shrimp. When an American film director arrives, charming Tom's mother into enlisting Tom's help, Tom's world shifts. I loved this story, which reflects on so much about a lost life and much more.

28-31 Aug 2025
#Bookerlonglist2025 No 7
A beautiful cover for a beautiful book. I loved Wood‘s delicate portrait of Thomas, whose life is constrained by his class, circumstances and the drudgery of his life as a shrimp fisher, yet who still shows such depth of character and manages to take an artistic view of his world through his music.
Reminded me of many of the quiet books I have enjoyed in the recent years: Clare Keegan, Clear, Lucy Barton.

Thomas Frett scrapes for shrimp as a living, barely making enough to feed him and his ma. Sea scraping is a hard life, out with low tide and he feels way older than his 20 yrs.

Then a stranger knocks on their door, a Hollywood producer with big dreams and he wants Thomas help in navigating the beach and sea. Could their luck have changed?

Seascraper, by Benjamin Wood (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: In a changing post-War England, a young shrimper sleepwalking through a life weighed down by family legacy and the scandal of his birth is woken up when a glamorous Hollywood director hires him to show him safely around the local beaches.
⬇️

Camille says, "If you want to take my picture, just ask. The 'photos of bookmail' pretense is unnecessary."

The Booker Longlist titles that I can't get at the library arrived today. Now to sit still uninterrupted long enough to read them...

Doesn‘t it just 😕

A truly lovely book about a boy who scrapes the sea for shrimp and then meets a man who promises him Hollywood. The setting and scenery are drawn out so well, Thomas Flett is quite a special boy and the ending is… wow. Do visit the website mentioned at the end of the book 🎶

#Bookerlonglist #2

When in England, you buy the Booker-listed titles not yer released in North America. #bookerlist

Saw this on the #bookerlonglist and got a kind of feeling. So I had to read it immediately. I think it‘s the cover‘s fault, but I expected something more poetic? I liked the character and the story but the writing was too little atmospheric for me.

Isn‘t this the most gorgeous cover?!

20 year old Thomas is a ‘shanker‘ - he collects shrimps in an unnamed beach town, in mid-20th Century Britain, still using a horse and cart. One day a charismatic American arrives, offering money and requesting help that only Thomas can offer.

Will he be able to break away from his lonely drudgery or is it all too good to be true?

#netgalley Pub 17th July in the UK.