A Town by the Sea

A Town by the Sea

by Chris Paling (Author)

Synopsis

When I awoke the tongue of the tide was lapping at my feet and the sea had claimed my belongings. The sand on which I lay was so stiff there was no trace of my footprints across it. An observer viewing me from above might have imagined I had been washed upon the shore from a shipwreck. Another would perhaps have construed that I had been cast away by choice. If I had encountered my inert body I would have made the former assumption although the latter is much closer to the truth...' With these words, the narrator of A Town by the Sea sets off towards a coastal town which lies some distance to the east of him. But he also embarks on a journey into his past. Along the way he encounters ghosts, he climbs a tall tower and is marooned in the clouds, he meets a ruffian and a dandy, he is attacked and tied to a cart, and, in the garden of a derelict house, he glimpses a scene from his childhood. Slowly, the mystery of how he arrived on the shoreline is solved, but is this the end of his journey, or just another stop along the way?

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 02 Feb 2006

ISBN 10: 0099477661
ISBN 13: 9780099477662
Book Overview: A beautifully written new novel by 'a seriously talented writer' (Independent).

Media Reviews
A seriously talented writer Independent This is a quiet, contemplative novel which politely invites the reader to accompany it on its journey. It is an invitation well worth accepting Time Out A highly original and absorbing work...The product of a prodigious imagination Literary Review Paling can recreate the real world as convincingly as any of his peers, but the main strength of A Town By the Sea is the very anonymity of the setting, the unrevealed identity of the narrator, and the sense of the novel as fable Independent
Author Bio
Chris Paling is the author of several novels: After the Raid, Deserters, Morning All Day, The Silent Sentry, Newton's Swing, Minding , Nimrod's Shadow and Repentant Morning. He is currently a producer for BBC Radio 4 and lives in Brighton with his wife and two children.