Overview

Oprah.com “Fresh Pick for Your Fall Book-Club Meeting” “Gratifyingly defies expectations.” —New York Times Book Review “[A] harrowing Arctic adventure.” —Oprah.com “An extraordinary novel, combining a powerful narrative with a considered and poetic use of language. . . . Reading the book, I recalled the dramatic natural landscape of Jack London and the wild untamed seas of William Golding.” —JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and A History of Loneliness “The great topic of Cormac James’ The Surfacing is the reach of human possibility. The prose is calm, vivid, hypnotic, and acutely piercing. James is attuned to the psychological moment: this is a book about fatherhood and all its attendant terrors. It’s a remarkable achievement.” —COLUM McCANN, author of Let the Great World Spin and Transatlantic Far from civilization, on the hunt for Sir John Franklin’s recently lost Northwest Passage expedition, Lieutenant Morgan and his crew find themselves trapped in ever-hardening Arctic ice that threatens to break apart their ship. When Morgan realizes that a stowaway will give birth to his child in the frozen wilderness, he finds new clarity and courage to lead his men across a bleak expanse as shifting, stubborn, and treacherous as human nature itself. A tale of psychological fortitude against impossible odds, The Surfacing is also a beautifully told story of one man’s transformative journey toward fatherhood. Cormac James was born in Cork, Ireland, and lives in Montpellier, France, with his wife and son. The Surfacing is his North American debut novel.

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9781934137925

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Reviews

As much Jack London as Daniel Woodrell. . . . James cleverly fashions a tense, controlled work that is bolstered by weighty research. -- Irish Examiner Superb. . . . [ The Surfacing ] is told in lean, cool, poetic prose and is utterly compelling. --Scotland Sunday Herald Highly original and poetic. . . . Writers as diverse as Homer, Conrad, Melville and William Golding have led the way and James picks up the baton--or oar--wielding it with great skill. . . . The writing sparkles with inventiveness. . . . Scenes break as turmoil calls all hands to deck in a battle for survival, offering an intense experience for the reader. -- Irish Times (John Boyne) There's nothing like the reading buzz you get when a new book by an unfamiliar name grabs you and doesn't let go. . . . The cool precision of James's writing draws you on as surely as if you're there, trapped in that claustrophobic interior with the vast northern landscape stretching forever outside. -- Irish Times (Arminta Wallace) James uses the sublime appeal of the Arctic and the extreme situation of his characters as the stage for an essentially domestic psychological novel. The Surfacing is about how people live together and how we rise to the occasion of pregnancy and birth. . . . This is a book for grownups. . . . The expedition, after all, is just a metaphor; the Impetus a ship of fools, the protagonist, Morgan, an Odysseus who's not going anywhere. . . . . The prose matches the landscape, rigorously unadorned, returning the gaze of a reader led into a world without hiding places. -- Guardian Engrossing. . . . It is James' willingness to break free from the limitations of the traditional Arctic tale that takes the novel beyond the genre and widens its appeal. It allows the novel to venture far beyond the expedition narrative and delve into issues of fatherhood and responsibility, bringing all the complexities of the crew's life back home under the blinding glare and unforgiving scrutiny of the Arctic sun. Beneath the surface of this expedition story, as with the stark ice-scape of the Arctic, it is in fact teeming with life. -- Irish Independent There are unforgettable descriptions of the creaking, shifting, endless ice, and the contrast with the warmth of a growing new life is very well done. --London Times An extraordinary novel, combining a powerful narrative with a considered and poetic use of language. . . . Reading the book, I recalled the dramatic natural landscape of Jack London and the wild untamed seas of William Golding. Cormac James' writing is ambitious enough to be compared with either. --JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and A History of Loneliness The great topic of Cormac James' The Surfacing is the reach of human possibility. The prose is calm, vivid, hypnotic, and acutely piercing. . . . This is a book about fatherhood and all its attendant terrors. James recognizes the surfacing of love in the face of solitude. It's a remarkable achievement, a stylish novel, full of music and quiet control. --COLUM McCANN, author of Let the Great World Spin and Transatlantic Cormac James' writing is very assured, with a harsh poetic edge. His evocations of barren landscape, sea weather, pack ice, and frozen skies are powerful and compelling. --ROSE TREMAIN, author of Music & Silence and Merivel: A Man of His Time

Author Information

Cormac James was born in Cork, Ireland, and lives in Montpellier, France, with his wife and son. He has published short fiction in Columbia, 3rd Bed, and The Dublin Review. The Surfacing is his North American debut novel.

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