This quiet, lyrical novel confirms a powerful new voice (THE TIMES)This is a poetic book with a winning generosity of spirit, moving from a folksy celebration of the rural north to a revelation of the broader horizons that can come from reading and some serious culture (SUNDAY TIMES)It's a poignant story, and Myers' descriptions of the countryside are wonderful (MAIL ON SUNDAY)One of the most interesting, restless writers of his generation . Unfurling at the unhurried pace of a fern, it's an evocatively lyrical paean to the countryside - deeply felt and closely observed (DAILY MAIL)A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ... He's such a good and brave writer . there's a lot of heart in this book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it's so much more hopeful than that . there's light in this landscape ... A very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of ways (MONOCLE)Every page is studded with descriptive jewels . Deeply attuned to the natural world . Poetic . This book is a sensual pleasure . It's about the forever things: good food, and art, and friendship, and how those pleasures can redeem us, even during the harshest of times (NEW STATESMAN)Quietly gripping . Written with Myers's customary grit and brio . A welcome advance, one that sees Myers effortlessly extending his range (GUARDIAN)What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It's gorgeous (MAX PORTER)A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place (HERALD)Myers' prose and poetry makes a celebration of the "new Ondaatje" a far less preposterous mantle than it may seem (CAUGHT BY THE RIVER)

'What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness ... Gorgeous'Max Porter, author of LannyA Times Book of the YearAn i Book of the YearA Reading Agency Book of the YearA BBC Radio 2 Book Club PickA BBC Radio 4 'Book at Bedtime'An Observer Pick for 2019

One summer following the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham village. Sixteen and the son of a coal miner, he makes his way across the northern countryside until he reaches the former smuggling village of Robin Hood's Bay. There he meets Dulcie, an eccentric, worldly, older woman who lives in a ramshackle cottage facing out to sea.

Staying with Dulcie, Robert's life opens into one of rich food, sea-swimming, sunburn and poetry. The two come from different worlds, yet as the summer months pass, they form an unlikely friendship that will profoundly alter their futures.

Benjamin Myers was born in Durham in 1976. His novel The Gallows Pole received a Roger Deakin Award and won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. Beastings won the Portico Prize for Literature and Pig Iron won the Gordon Burn Prize, while Richard was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. He has also published poetry, crime novels and short fiction, while his journalism has appeared in publications including, among others, the Guardian, New Statesman, Caught by the River and New Scientist. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.

benmyers.com / @BenMyers1