When Jack Sweeney first arrives in the Cornish town of Polmayne in
the 1930s, he finds a thriving fishing community. He falls in love
with the place at first sight and willingly trades his unhappy past
for a new future on the sea: one that provides him with a
combination of steady work and a sense of peace and tranquility. As
he becomes more settled, Jack meets artist Anna Abraham, the young
Russian wife of a regular summer visitor to Polmayne, and the trio
soon become friends. When Anna and her husband return to London,
they continue to correspond via regular letters. But the letters
become more intimate and Anna severs all ties to avoid inevitable
pain. Meanwhile progress reaches Polmayne and dramatic changes to
the town become unavoidable, at the same time as the sea's
resources begin to shrink and the fabric that the town rests on
starts to fray. Jack's life too takes a dramatic turn before nature
finally unleashes her unpredictable force and the sea re-affirms
its domination of the town. Widely praised for his travel writing,
Marsden is just as remarkable as a novelist, his love of nature
apparent throughout this simultaneously gripping and evocative
story. The reader cannot fail to be moved by the intensity of
Jack's relationship both with the sea and with Anna, and yet we
know that in the end only the sea can survive. Beautifully written
and deeply absorbing, this novel will leave you immensely satisfied
and searching out more books written by this gifted author. (Kirkus
UK)
Philip Marsden?s brilliant first novel is set in the 1930s, in the small Cornish fishing village of Polmayne. A newcomer to the village, Jack Sweeney, buys a boat and establishes himself as a fisherman, gradually winning the respect even of the village elders.
But times are changing, and a new kind of visitor is beginning to appear in Polmayne. A bohemian colony of artists offends some sensibilities, while a hotel is opened to accommodate the summer tourists, and pleasure steamers mingle with the fishing boats in the harbour.
Yet, despite the superficial changes, the old ways and the old hazards of Cornish life endure. Offshore, just below the surface of the waves, lie the Main Cages, a treacherous outcrop of rock where many ships and many lives have been lost.
Firmly rooted in a particular place and time, yet recalling in its universality such books as Graham Swift?s Waterland and E. Annie Proulx?s The Shipping News, The Main Cages is a gripping story of love and death, and a remarkable fictional debut.
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