Doggerland

Doggerland
Ben Smith

‘The Road meets Waiting for Godot: powerful, unforgettable, unique’ Melissa Harrison, author of At Hawthorn Time.Doggerland is a superbly gripping debut novel about loneliness and hope, nature and survival – set on an off-shore windfarm in the not-so-distant future.‘His father’s breath had been loud in the small room. It had smelled smoky, or maybe more like dust. He had knotted and unknotted a strap on the bag he was holding – he must have been leaving to go out to the farm that day. ‘I’ll get out,’ he’d said. ‘I’ll come back for you, ok?’ The boy remembered that; had always remembered it. And, for a time, he’d believed it too.’In the North Sea, far from what remains of the coastline, a wind farm stretches for thousands of acres.The Boy, who is no longer really a boy, and the Old Man, whose age is unguessable, are charged with its maintenance. They carry out their never-ending work, scoured by wind and salt, as the waves roll, dragging strange shoals of flotsam through the turbine fields. Land is only a memory.So too is the Boy’s father, who worked on the turbines before him, and disappeared. The boy has been sent by the Company to take his place, but the question of where he went and why is one for which the Old Man will give no answer.As his companion dredges the sea for lost things, the Boy sifts for the truth of his missing father. Until one day, from the limitless water, a plan for escape emerges…This beautifully crafted novel about loneliness and hope, nature and survival, is as haunting as it is compelling – a very special debut indeed.

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Copyright (#u8fda608c-95e1-53c6-9079-583ad24c768c)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate 2019

Copyright © Ben Smith 2019

Cover image © Shutterstock.com

Ben Smith asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008313364

Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9780008313388

Version: 2019-02-25

Dedication (#u8fda608c-95e1-53c6-9079-583ad24c768c)

for Lucy

Contents

1  Cover (#ufbdb6d5a-2864-5638-a3aa-4b73fcf12366)

2  Title Page

3  Copyright

4  Dedication

5  Contents (#u8fda608c-95e1-53c6-9079-583ad24c768c)

6  Bootlaces

7 Nothing

8 Cracks

9 Junk

10  c.8,200 Before Present

11 A Fur Hat

12  Something

13  Tins

14  Bottles

15  c.20,000 Before Present

16  Knots

17  Circuits

18  Systems

19  c.14,000 Before Present

20  Down

21  Up

22  c.11,000 Before Present

23  Paper Cups

24  Fish

25  Westerlies

26  c.9,500 Before Present

27  Easterlies

28  Cracks

29  c.8,500 Before Present