In Ian McGuire’s sharp and original thriller, a violent confrontation between two men plays out in the freezing darkness of an Arctic winter.
Stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on a whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with no money and no better option than to embark as ship’s medic on this ill-fated voyage. As their journey continues, trapped together in the wooden belly of the ship, Sumner realise that he has finally encountered pure evil - and is forced to act.
Ian McGuire
About the Author
Ian McGuire is a long-term academic, having joined the English department of Manchester University in 1996 where he specialises in the late-19th century American realist tradition.