Seascraper

by Benjamin Wood

Seascraper is a mesmerising portrait of a young man hemmed in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature.

Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street, and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.

When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?

Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.​​​​

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, Novella, British Literature

1 pages, Audio CD

First published July 17, 2025

About the author

Benjamin Wood was born in 1981 and grew up in Merseyside. He is the author of five novels, the latest of which, SEASCRAPER, was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025. His first book won France's Prix du Roman Fnac and Prix Baudelaire in 2014. His other works have been shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, the Costa First Novel Award, the CWA Gold Dagger Award, the European Union Prize for Literature, the Commonwealth Book Award, and the RSL Encore Award. He is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at King's College London, where he teaches fiction modules and founded the PhD in Creative Writing programme. He lives in Surrey with his wife and sons.​

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025
This is such a moody, beautifully atmospheric book about a young man on the verge of adulthood, living with his 36-year-old mother and working as a shanker, a trade he learned from his grandfather. His name is Thomas Flett, he hasn't seen much of the world outside his hometown of Longferry, and never met his father - his mother's life has always been restricted by the repercussions of her teenage pregnancy (it's apparently the 1960's). Shy Thomas has a crush on his friend's sister Joan, and he loves to compose and perform folk music, so when American film director Edgar Acheson (hello, talking name) comes to Longferry to scout locations, he starts pondering life as an artist.

If you now think that this is a "small town boy goes to Hollywood" story, you're mistaken, and I'm saying this because it's the core strength of the novel: It's not about the American Dream or fulfilling the stale idea of success we get to see on our social media feeds every day. No: It's a book about the search for authentic happiness, which is a highly individual endeavor that's not exclusively related to outside validation. Sensitive Thomas is not necessarily looking for the kind of adventure that takes you around the world, he is looking for emotional immediacy and connection, also through art.

Usually, I'm not much into highly descriptive texts, but Jesus Christ, how Benjamin Wood writes about the work of a shanker, about Thomas steering his horse and his cart through the fog, how he juxtaposes the substance-driven, manic director with the somber nature at the ghostly beach, how he incorporates the power of the subconscious, how he works with the opposition between sheer make-belief and connective art - this is just masterful and original. The human interactions, the townsfolk, Thomas' youthful wish to see the good in people, the delicate connection between him and Joan - beautiful, beautiful psychological writing.

And then there's the music: I will not spoil what fuels Thomas to write the title-giving song, but I will say that not only the lyrics, but the whole song exists, and you can listen to it here:
http://www.benjaminwood.info/seascrap...
I recommend the audio book production that incorporates the music, everything performed by the author, it's very moving and generally a great listen.

Which leaves me with one question: Why isn't Benjamin Wood a famous writer? The Booker judges are right: He should be!

You can listen to the podcast gang discussing the German translation Der Krabbenfischer here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/podcast/...

[Canadian Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a grey, dismal, atmospheric read. The environment aligns with the general feeling of the main character, Thomas. He’s only 20 but it feels like he’s closer to 60.
Day in and out he takes his unnamed horse to the sea to scrape up prawns he sells to survive.
One day, a man appears. A producer.
An opportunity. A chance to change the path his life was taking.
Themes of abandonment; depression; Hope.

This was a little slow for me. Overall, an ok read but I’m not a huge fan of the bookers.
3.5⭐️

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

trying to read as many booker prize selections as i can before i run out of time

(thanks to the publisher for the copy)

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

To say this is atmospheric is an understatement as I was immersed in the fog and the chill on the beach where 20 year old Thomas Flett scrapes the sea for shrimp making a meager living providing support for himself and his mother . It’s a sad, lonely, hard working existence in Northern England in spite of his dreams to play his music and maybe find a different life. A feeling of melancholy and acceptance that this was meant to be is reflected as Thomas trudges through the days, but his yearning for more grows . A chance to perhaps find a way out, a way forward to the music he loves , to a better life, comes along when a stranger seeks his help to travel the beach as he films a movie . An offer of money , a glimpse at what it might be like to make art .

“There's now a cool, soft, effervescent feeling in his blood, a sense of possibility that's spreading from his heart down to his ingrown nails. He's always been suspicious of excitement - nothing he anticipates is ever worth the wait or turns out quite the same he expects - but still, it's coursing through him like a medicine. If it's true that better luck will come to you through patience and determination , he’s not felt the benefits of that approach so far .”

I couldn’t help but hope for more for Thomas, but at the same time, I was skeptical that the movie maker would be the answer to Thomas’ prayers . What a difference a day makes ! I was not prepared for the moving ending. This is deservedly longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize. A depiction of a young man’s place in the world hampered by circumstances, but elevated by hopes and dreams.

(Thanks to Melanie who always writes beautiful reviews led me to this book. Here’s her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


I received a copy of this from Scribner through NetGalley.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shortlisted for the 2025 Nero Book Award - Fiction
Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize

And in keeping with the prize’s longlisting of a group of relatively unheralded English based male authors (Markovits, Miller, Buckley) and of rather quiet novels (add “Love Forms”) - based both in my own views (confirmed on a re-read) and general reader reaction post longlist I would not dismiss the novel’s chances of taking the prize as it is such a well constructed novel.

The year of the novel - assuming that the local cinema is showing new releases - would appear to be 1962 when “The Land In Winter” also starts, also in the West of England if much further South and also dominated by weather (here fog, there snow).

I found it interesting that in this novel Thomas’s mother had him at 15 and chose to keep the baby despite the constraints it involved on the rest of her life - interesting as this is a longlist that majors on adoption. Most noticeably Dawn in “Love Forms”, but also - at least in the view of Xavier in Part 1 - the narrator of “Audition”, Anne with Tobias in “Flashlight” and even Bori (Istvan’s last lover) having given up a baby in “Flesh” at 15.

Favourite quote on a re-read

brown shrimp tumbling in the wash of water far away, awaiting his return, if not today then some day after, when the money’s all been spent in the account on bills and debts and stuff to eat and smoke and Lord knows what his ma does with it, but he knows this much: the town feels smaller than it did when he rode through it last, the outer world seems fuller and less difficult to reach. He’s added something to it now – it mightn’t be much cop or good enough to get the admiration of the crowd down at the Fisher’s Rest, but he can say he made it on his own, and there’ll be more to come.
This little snippet of the coastline he relies on for his livelihood does not belong to him or anybody, but it’s always there, preceding him, outlasting him for sure, and he can recognise his loyalty to the ghosts who walk along it – he can even manage to respect himself for being steadfast to the work – but there’s no meaning in it any more. It doesn’t matter to the sea who visits it, or to the shrimp who scrapes them from the sand. A song, though – well, a song belongs to someone. To whoever dreamed it up. Yesterday it wasn’t even born, and now it’s in the world. He can’t go on ignoring what he’s best at, and it isn’t shanking in his grandpa’s cart.

ORIGINAL REVIEW

The sea is so withdrawn it’s nothing but a promise you’d be mad to put your faith in; it’s the same old promise every ebb tide and he won’t be chasing it this morning.

 
Set in a fictional coast town – Longferry (a fictionalised version of the author’s home town and so I think on the North West Coast of England – although this is not specified) and set by deduction in the 1960s (again not specified – and the main protagonist is effectively living what was already then an outmoded almost anachronistic way of life making the exact timing difficult to judge), the novel’s (the Creative Writing Lecturer’s fifth) protagonist is twenty year old Thomas Flett.
 
Thomas is working in the family trade (via his maternal grandfather) as a shanker – taking his horse and cart out across the 1-2 mile long beach at each low water (the book effectively takes place over three such low waters over two days) to scrape just across the sea shore for shrimp - which he then sells for cash in hand to a local merchant.
 
Thomas lives with his mother – his father was her teacher and had relationships with her as a schoolchild before fleeing in disgrace to join up and being killed in the war – and his deliberately unnamed horse (the risk of having to abandon horse in sinkpits in the sand mean that traditionally the shankers have not got too sentimentally attached to their horses – albeit a close working relationship is essential to their trade).
 
Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.
 
For all Thomas feels almost obliged to pursue this trade and support his mother in her hand-to-mouth home economics, he yearns for a different future and secretly is practising his folk guitar playing while also trying to pluck up (pun intended) the courage to speak to the sister of his best friend.
 
And over the two days of the novel – a new vista opens up when he and his mother are visited by an American filmmaker (who Thomas checks out in a film guide at his local shop) scouting for a location to film his favourite novel set – a mysterious ghost like story set on a desolate American beach and involving an undertaker’s horse and cart.
 
And while not everything about the visitor turns out to be exactly as he initially promised, a beach accident leading to a fevered dream unlocks a creativity in Thomas and leads him to write the titular song.
 
Thomas’s song (and a recording from the author’s website is here http://www.benjaminwood.info/seascrap...)
 

At first light we wake 
to gulls in the shallows 
tack up our horses pack up the cart 
The pier is bright 
with lamps still burning 
once we’ve arrived 
we’re so nearly departed 
Lord, give me life enough to do this again, 
to rise with the tide in the morning at Longferry
Let me go home with the whiskets full of the shrimp 
Bury me here in these waters 
so I can be a seascraper 
a seascraper forever

 
Overall this was a quiet and short but nevertheless impactful novel.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this novella was simply… brilliant!
The atmosphere from the Irish Sea… the cold and damp, the fog, the tide… it’s as if I was right there with the lonely young man Thomas Fett ..as he was on the beach with his horse catching shrimp.
It’s as if the atmosphere were itself a character.

Though the work he does is hard work, he has dreams and when a movie director sees him on the beach, things start looking up for him and his mom who are very much in need, financially.

Anyway, an occurrence happens at sea..while Thomas was s out scouting the location at night with the movie director..and Thomas begins to believe that he can follow his dreams.
A beautiful story!

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“‘But listen, Tom - it’s not so easy. When you’re young, you think life is a string of choices. It’s either you choose this door or the other door, or jump out of the window. You don’t realise that most of what’ll happen to you is because of other people’s choices. There’s a door already opened for you, so you walk straight through it, and you wonder how you wound up on the fire escape. That’s life, I’m telling you. Don’t bother getting older. Art’s the only way I’ve ever had of making any sense of it.’”

Warning: I’m about to swear.

What an absolute f***ing joy this was.

Benjamin Wood, I had never heard of you before picking up this book, but “Seascraper” was one of the most thrilling, gratifying, heartbreaking and chill-giving reading experiences that I have ever had.

At once brooding and atmospheric, gritty and monotonous, rooted in tiresome, daily physical work and the flux of daydreams, spoken and unspoken, this small miracle of a novel revolves around the sudden tear that rips through the fabric of 20-something Thomas Flett’s life as a horseback shrimp fisherman on the coast of England.

There is the sea. The wild, life-giving, unforgiving sea. There is a horse. There is duty and aspirations. Mothers and sons. The ghosts of WWII. Free will and resignation. The burgeoning 60’s. The foggy white of seaside towns and the distant green of the Hollywood hills.

And there is music. Music brewing in the ether, in one’s tired and hopeful heart, in tentative fingers on badly tuned guitar chords, breaking free at last. Quite literally.

“Seascraper” will knock you flat out and take your breath away. Then it will give you just the song that your tired heart needed.

Follow the low tide.

[Helga · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of this atmospheric novel follows the 20 year old Thomas Flett who tries to make a living by catching shrimp in the treacherous foggy shores of a fictional costal town in England.

One day, Thomas is visited by Edgar Acheson an American film director who needs a guide for his upcoming movie which will be using the shore as the setting.

This is a story about family, obsession, ambition, chance and possibilities.

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever lived by the sea -especially in the winter- when the days are grey, damp and full of an engulfing mist, then the scene is set in Seascraper in atmosphere and climate..

Now Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2025
Booker Longlist 2025


Thomas Flett works as a shanker- he drags a net through the sandy wet coastline channels of Longferry beach led by his horse to catch shrimp. This is the occupation that he inherited from his grandfather- a tireless, exhausting occupation that pays little and stretches Thomas to his physical limit .

It is the 1960s and Thomas lives with his mother- who having raised Thomas without a father places a continual pressure upon him to earn a living for them both. His only escape is his love of books and to secretly play the guitar and attend a music night at a local bar whilst contemplating who is father was.

Life changes with the unexpected arrival Edgar Acheson who charms his way into their home and requests( for a fee) that Thomas shows him the area and how he carries out his occupation with the goal that the information can be used towards a film he intends to produce. Could this be a life changing moment for Thomas- a chance to break the monotony and hardship?

The story takes place over a two day period and the pervading sense of melancholy, routine and hardship is palpable- rather like the grim weather. The conflicted emotions of Thomas are palpable- his desire for change permeates off the page.... is this the time for change ?

Poetic, brooding and charged with sense of claustrophobia from the encroaching mist, Benjamin Wood has written a novel that will linger with you long after completion.

[Flo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

This book has a great atmosphere, which is the best approach for a short novel with an unclear subject. There is certainly beauty here, though I think different readers will find it in different places. The prose is very cinematic - fitting, given that Thomas, the shanker at the center of the story, gets to hold onto this Hollywood hope for half the book. But I think this is ultimately a book about small dreams, not big ones. There is beauty in a simple life, but we don't need to idealize it, just as we don't need to celebrate ambition that crushes others. This may be my first read from this year’s Booker longlist, but I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t make the shortlist.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book. Beautifully written Mr Wood. You were able to put me in the mist. You made me feel the sand beneath my feet. I felt the red flared fog around me. And I was in that room with Patrick. And I could even see Mr Runyon carting his load.

I just finished the audiobook narrated by Benjamin Wood himself and that was a grand finish, truly grand. I'd recommend the audiobook just for this.

Thomas was inching his way through choices that needed to be done and then enters Edgar. Edgar does come like a whirlwind into Thomas' life but his wind jolts Thomas and loosens the ropes that bind him and we see Thomas in a much better place with a much better frame of mind going forward.

Included in the Booker Longlist for 2025.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up.

# 2 of the Booker longlist for me to read and have a feeling this will make the shortlist - and may go all the way. Had never read Wood before (although I HAVE an unread copy of his 3rd novel) but now want to read his entire backlist.

This starts off slowly and lyrically, reminding me of the work of Donal Ryan - and I had to keep checking to make sure he ISN'T Irish. Although at 163 pages it's technically a novella I suppose, it reads as a full-course meal and just gets more and more interesting the further you get into it.

Taking place in 1962 (which isn't stated directly, but Lawrence of Arabia is playing at the cinema. so that pegs it as that year), the story concerns 20-year-old Thomas (never Tom) Flett, who ekes out a meager subsistence as the titular shrimp 'shanker' for himself and his 36-year-old mum in Longferry, a fictious northern UK town.

He has dreams of becoming a folk singer/songwriter and romancing his bestie's sister Joan, but both seem pipe dreams until mysterious American filmmaker Edgar Atcheson shows up and hires him as a location scout to show him the sights/sites.

Won't say more, for fear of spoilers, but it's a lovely story, gentle yet impactful ... and a further nice little touch is that the author provides on his website a sample of himself playing/singing the titular song Thomas is working on throughout the book.

[Henk · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quiet novel set in a dying world of manual (and horsepowered) shrimp catching. Monotony seems to be disrupted and war traumas reverberate, with change maybe not impossible but definitely hard
Providing is surviving

Thomas Flett is a 20 year old who works day in day out as a shanker, fishing for shrimps. His mom, only 16 years older than him and a dead history teacher father inhabit the small house he lives in. This 1960s equilibrium is upset when a film director comes into this grimy, sparse environment. Traumas abound, not just the dead father, who passed away in France, but also from being pulled off from school to work and having no privacy around his mother. Still there are touching scenes (You're not a bad lad, really, I did something right) and the book is definitely not drab, besides the incessant mentions of ingrown toenails.

In a way this short book reminded me of Claire Keegan, without the big moral decisions, from Small Things Like These but similar in crystalline prose that really draws you into an atmosphere.
There are some glimmers of hope near the end, centred around a village girl and music, and I would definitely recommend the audiobook, where the author signs the titular song.

Quotes:
This world is so full of noise and most of it is pointless

He’s closer to the grave than he ever been to marriage

Life has a way of undermining all your principles as you get older

But there are pieces of the truth she doesn’t need to hold yet

[Tini · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quiet masterpiece of longing, craft, and escape.

Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.

"When you're young, you think life is a string of choices. It's either you choose this door or the other door, or jump out of the window. You don't realise that most of what'll happen to you is because of other people's choices. There's a door already opened for you, so you walk straight through it, and you wonder how you wound up on the fire escape. That's life, I'm telling you. Don't bother getting older. Art's the only way I've ever had of making any sense of it."

In the fog-lit coastal town of Longferry, 21-year-old Thomas Lett lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother and his horse-drawn cart, scraping shrimp at dawn and selling his catch by afternoon. His trade is inherited, his dreams hidden: he longs to be a folk musician and to win the heart of his crush, Joan Wyeth, down the street. But when a striking American visitor arrives, bringing with him glamour and the possibility of a different future, Thomas finds himself caught between the weight of his class and the pull of his ambition.

Benjamin Wood's "Seascraper" is a haunting, breathtakingly beautiful portrait of a young man hemmed in by circumstance even as he dares to dream of something beyond. An intimate look at a mere one and a half days in Thomas's life, "Seascraper" manages to convey, despite its slim frame, the entirety of a simple life, honest work, and the ache for more - an ode to the power of music and the chance to reinvent yourself.

With slow, lyrical prose and a focus on the internal as much as the external, Wood beautifully captures the ache of longing and the cost of waiting. Intensely atmospheric and full of vivid imagery and transcendent melancholy, "Seascraper" is simply unforgettable. One of my favorite reads this year.

The absolutely stunning cover perfectly captures this novel. Make sure not to miss the audio of Thomas's song, which can be found at www.benjaminwood.info/seascraper.

Many thanks to Scribner for providing me with a copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

"Seascraper" was first published on July 17, 2025; the U.S. edition is slated to be published on November 4, 2025.

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If any of you aspiring authors out there are wondering how to write economically, consider this passage early in Seascraper:

There’s a haze of bacon grease inside the kitchen when he steps back in. His ma stands at the stove, barefooted in a dressing gown that seems to shrink a little every time she washes it. There’s only half an inch of height between them and just under sixteen years. She's moving like a crab between the gas hob and the breadboard on the worktop, where two slabs of a loaf are lying thinly margarined.

If you’re reading inattentively, you might let the fact that the mother got pregnant just after turning 15 slip right past you. This is a short novel but the way it’s written rewards careful reading, so it seems longer.

Perhaps because I grew up among shrimpers and commercial fisherman, there was no sense of the exotic here for me, though that seems to be what many reviewers responded to most strongly. I think the author was wise to begin the book with a long description of the main character’s daily life before setting any plot points in motion. Many readers will be wondering what force holds this person in his pattern, a question the book tries to answer. But maybe there is no answer.

I enjoyed the setting and the skill with which it was written, though I found the plot a bit too neat and tidy. This came across almost like a fairy tale (a decidedly Grimm one) which was a bit at odds with the down-to-earth tone. I enjoyed spending time with Thomas and wouldn’t have minded a few additional meanders along his route. Let’s leave it with this:

This little snippet of coastline he relies on for his living does not belong to him or anybody, but it’s always there, preceding him, outlasting him for sure, and he can recognize his loyalty to the ghosts who walk along it – he can even manage to respect himself for being steadfast to the work – but there’s no meaning to it anymore. It doesn’t matter to the sea who visits it, or to the shrimp who scrapes them from the sand.

Many thanks to Scribner for making me among the 0.5% of entrants to win this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. There was no pressure from them to write a review, I read and reviewed this for my own enjoyment.

[Nat K · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize ***

"You're never far away from rain out here."

Utterly beautiful.

This is one of those rare occurrences where a book just takes your breath away. I had a feeling that this book would be special, and it exceeded all my expectations of it.

Twenty-year-old Thomas Flett is a shanker. Up before dawn is even thinking of rising, he and his faithful horse (who has no name for superstitious reasons) follow a well-trodden path to the sea where they eke out a living together. Casting nets to catch the shrimp that tumble through the waves, to be sold directly to market. It’s a profession that is being replaced by machinery, but he sticks to the old ways which his pop taught him.

"Providing is surviving."

Older than his years from such hard manual labour, Thomas’s joys are few. The guitar which he bought from hocking his pop’s watch, and Joan Wyeth who he is sweet on but too shy to talk to. Tom’s dreams are simple. He’d like to sing folk songs he has written at the local pub but doesn’t think he’s up to it. He’d like to ask Joan out but assumes she wouldn’t want a simple man who smells of the sea. It’s not that he is unhappy, but Thomas can’t help but think that there is a world beyond the perimeter of the home he shares with his mother, horse and the sea. He has a lot of time to think, the hours he spends on the shoreline. He wonders who he would be if he had been able to finish his schooling. If he had known his father. If he had a life other than that by the sea.

"Enjoy his life instead of drifting through it."

A chance encounter by a stranger who arrives in their little corner of Longferry could be the person to turn things around.

This is such a beautifully atmospheric book where you can feel the whip of the wind on your skin, and the sting of the salt in your eyes. You really get the sense of feeling what Thomas is feeling, going out in all weathers. I don’t know if it’s because I live near the beach, but this book spoke to me on so many levels.

This is a story that shows change is always imminent and sometimes we are forced out of our comfort zone in order to flourish.

"But the world had other plans. The world does tend to, doesn't it, in my experience."

Book 5 of my Booker Prize longlist. While I’ve only read a mere portion of this year’s longlist, I can't but hope that this one wins. It’s special. It’s such a stunning, lonely, yet hopeful book. It’s one I will carry around with me, and I can’t really explain why. It’s just so beautiful.

It wouldn't surprise me if this ends up being made into a film or mini-series at some point. It actually begs to be brought to life via an additional medium.

Buddy read with the wonderful, talented Mr.Nealeski. Make sure you read his review when he posts it.

Thomas’ song can be listened to here. In context with the book you can’t help but tear up when you hear it:
http://www.benjaminwood.info/seascrap...

"Lord, it's a hard life, son, I know that it is,
to rise with the tide in the morning at Longferry
Let me go home with the whiskets full of shrimp
Bury me here in these waters so I can be
a seascraper
a seascraper
a seascraper
a seascraper forever"

Postscript! Wednesday 24.Sept.25
Utterly perplexed and devastated that this wonderful, beautiful book has not made it to the shortlist. Why??? Forget "The Booker Prize". More like "The Shocker Prize". I simply cannot understand it.

[Hugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

It is Booker season again, so I'll try to get myself back into a reviewing mindset now that I have embarked on reading the longlist. This was an excellent start to the longlist, a quiet reflective book whose protagonist is a young man, one of the last shrimpers to use a working horse on the treacherous sands of England's Irish Sea coast in the 50s. The first part of the book describes a typical morning in his life, but things get more interesting when he gets home to find a mysterious stranger awaiting him. I won't spoil the plot, but the resolution fits the atmosphere very well.

Update 24/9: Losing this one was the biggest disappointment of last night's shortlist announcement, but I am grateful to the judges for bringing it to my attention and I am definitely interested in reading more of Wood's books

[Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize.

This is the story of Thomas. We are never told the time period but references from characters suggest that it is somewhere in the sixties. Thomas is a Seascraper or shanker. Like me you are probably wondering what in the world is a shanker? Well Thomas goes to the beach each day with nothing but his horse and nets and trawls for shrimp every morning. A backbreaking job that takes its toll on one’s body and mind. Thomas is only twenty but moves with the fragile tired shuffles of an old man. His spine is hunching over. He longs to ask Joan, a young woman who lives near him, out, but is too shy. He also yearns to become a singer, and writes his own songs, but doubts himself, his voice and talent. And there in lies the crux of the story. Should he take the risks and pursue both Joan and his dreams of singing or stay working the job that his family has for generations that, I think it’s fair to say is slowly killing him. Is it possible for him to break out of this world that he was born into? Does he really want to?

What makes this book so good? Well, it’s beautifully written. Descriptive writing par excellence. The passages where Thomas is working in the water collecting shrimp are dripping with realism. The shrouding fog, the encroaching tide, the sink holes threatening to suck you down into their depths. These passages are stunning. Then there are the characters. Not a huge cast, but all brilliant, especially Thomas. And a narrative that is perfectly structured. Like pieces of a miniature train track, each piece clicked in leading to the perfect ending.

Make no mistake this is a brilliant book, and along with “Endling” one I would love to see win the Booker.

This was another buddy read with Nat K, and she loves it. Check out her review.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the years, Benjamin Wood has become one of those writers I trust enough that any new book is a must-read. I can always count on Wood for great writing – lean, lovely prose, never showy – but the themes are unpredictable; I never know quite what I’m going to get. The campus novel with a capital-W Weird twist in The Bellwether Revivals; the art novel-slash-psychological puzzle of The Ecliptic; the sizzling violence and tension in A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better; and a quieter, more subdued historical novel in The Young Accomplice. And now Seascraper, which feels like it follows most naturally from its immediate predecessor, yet with a markedly different tone: edgier, more mystical.

Thomas Flett is a ‘shanker’, a shrimp-dragger with a horse, cart and nets – out on the tidal flats doing the job his grandfather did, even though it’s the 1960s now and that world is already folding in on itself. He loves playing music, but doesn’t even feel it’s an appropriate hobby for a man like him, let alone a way to make a living. Thomas is a man trapped between lives: on the one hand, he’s only 20 and lives with his mother (herself still young; she was a teenage mum), who often treats him like he’s still a boy. On the other hand, he’s old before his time, worn down by the physical demands of his work, and feels it’s already too late to make changes to his life.

Into this monotony bursts Edgar Acheson, a film producer who’s been scouting for locations in the area and thinks Longferry beach, Thomas’s shrimping turf, would be perfect for his next project. It’s difficult to go into exactly what happens next without spoiling the whole thing. But it’s about Thomas coming to terms with his legacy – his dying trade, his father’s absence – and how Edgar’s presence has a life-changing ripple effect, even if not in the way Thomas, or the reader, might expect. There’s arguably a touch of magical realism in there, too.

Seascraper is a short novel, and if I have a criticism, it’s that it could have been fleshed out so much more. Thomas’s relationship with his mother, the pivotal prophecy or vision, the whole situation with Edgar… I would have liked to explore any (or all) of these threads further. I would have liked to read some of The Outermost, a fictitious book within the book that could have added an extra layer of unreality to the whole thing. (Although I appreciate ‘unreality’ is not necessarily what Wood is going for here; it’s me who has the instinct to turn towards the strange.)

If you liked Ben Tufnell’s The North Shore or James Clarke’s Sanderson’s Isle, this one will probably hit. Tighter and more focused than The Young Accomplice, it’s a good balance of tension and sentiment, the sort of balancing act that only someone with Wood’s talent could actually pull off.

I received an advance review copy of Seascraper from the publisher through NetGalley.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely story all around, told with descriptive writing that is downright cinematic. It is very touching to follow Thomas Flett's evolution as he begins to view the limited life he leads through the lens of an artistic, visionary stranger. His awakening into the romance of landscape, personal expression, and young love is beautifully paced and believable.

Two niggling exceptions:

1) I could have done with fewer references to ingrown toenails.

2) This Greek tragedy of a mis-assertion: What's wrong with hiding anyway? It worked out for the Trojans. (Note to author and Editor: History disagrees with you.)

[Tom Mooney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clearly I'm the minority here but I thought this was a bit crap. It's derivative, sappy, naive and soapy. Some of the writing, particularly the first half, is nice and the set up is good. But the second half is an utter shambles. A mix of utterly mundane and completely bizarre, all tied up in a tight bow. If this wins the Booker, we're all doomed.

[Darryl Suite · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful little heartbreaker. Loved this.

[Bianca thinksGRsucksnow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a slow, quiet novel about a young man living a simple, hard life alongside his single mother, in a village on the West Coast of England. He's the provider; they barely scrape by.
It's a life of early mornings, drudgery, with the cold seeping into one's bones. Rinse and repeat. But what else is Thomas to do?
One day, a Hollywood director shows up at their place, asking for Thomas' help to scout a beach location. The man is like no one Thomas had come across before.

Some chance meetings can change one's outlook on life.

This highly atmospheric novel was beautifully written, inhabited by ordinary and realistic characters.

It's beyond my comprehension how this book hasn't made it onto the Booker shortlist.

Oh, I read the first half and listened to the audiobook after that. Benjamin Wood was the narrator and he was incredible. He also included a couple of songs, written and sang by him. Such a beautiful addition! Obviously, he's a multi-talented man.

[Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This minimalist novel comes in at 163 pages and was pure joy to read. Benjamin Wood poetically uses simple language that stirred my soul. The main protagonist is Thomas Flett, a young man who is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a seascraper. Thomas goes down to the beach with his horse, cart, net, and the tools of his trade to bring up shrimp that he then sells locally. It’s a hard life that’s tied to the rhythms of the ocean, the tides, the weather, the horse’s clopping hooves, and Thomas’s daily routines, all the things he does to care for himself, his mother, the horse, and the implements of his work. There is great beauty in the simplicity of Thomas’s life and the way that Wood tells the story.

Secondary characters are richly drawn. Thomas’s mother, the stranger who comes to town offering Thomas an opportunity, and Joan, the young girl that Thomas is interested in, support the story in lively and dynamic ways. Joan’s part is small, but the subtext regarding Thomas’s yearning for her moves throughout much of the story.

Thomas also desires to make music. He knows little of how this would operate in his life, but he is moved and magnetically drawn by a guitar that he bought with his grandfather’s watch. I think the watch is a symbol of what we buy with our time. Is it for something we dearly love, as Thomas loves his guitar and the music that lives within him? Or, as beautifully and poetically described by Wood, the routines of life from which we find it hard to break. How this title did not make the 2025 Booker shortlist is beyond me, but I’m thankful it was on the longlist and that my library had a copy. Soulful reading.

[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+
Thomas Flett is a shanker, scraping a living from what the sea brings in on the tide but he knows the end is near because the waters now bring in strange chemicals and other disgusting detritus. Although he’s only 20 he feels like an old man as this living is hard. Once there were many shankers but now he’s the last one in Longferry. It’s cold and lonely, the only company is the placid draught horse pulling his cart. Thomas wants more. He’s in love with Joan Wyeth, his best friend’s sister and he has aspirations to be a musician. When American Edgar Acheson swings into town claiming to be a Hollywood filmmaker and offering him money in return for his help with shoreline locations, is this his get out of Longferry free card or something else? Can Acheson be trusted, is he credible?

This novella has vivid and beautiful writing, the descriptions are so visual and it’s abundant in the grey, cold misty atmosphere of winter by the sea in, I assume, Northern England. The mood does change but it starts very sombrely with the hardship and grind of Thomas’s routine being palpable as he moves back-and-forth trying to scrape a living. At times it has a claustrophobic feel especially as the mist closes in on the shoreline but it’s not just that, Thomas‘s life has strong elements of claustrophobia. The mood changes with music and when Joan Wyeth is on the page, then there’s some optimism. in addition, there’s hope that perhaps Edgar is offering him a chance and a change. Thomas seems to grow as a person throughout this two day period and you can see clearly what he is made of at the end. The story has some very dramatic moments especially of danger at the shoreline.

I’ve not read Benjamin Wood before but I wouldn’t hesitate to read his work again as he makes me feel as if I’m there in Longferry as an observer. The descriptions are rich yet quiet, their vibrant and real with a moment of surreal, it’s surprising as well as engrossing with excellent characterisation into the bargain. This is a memorable read and that cover is just stunning perfectly summing the novel up.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Penguin General UK for the much appreciated Epub in return for an honest review.

[TheBookWarren · Rating 5 out of 5]

⚫⚫⚫⚫½ — A pleasant, unique & warming seaside historical fiction novel that threads so much nuance it’s hard not to want to re-read immediately to soak up more.

Benjamin Wood’s Sea Scraper — longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize — is a ferocious, hypnotic novel that thrums with both architectural precision and oceanic dread. It’s a work that feels at once monumental and intimate; an odyssey built not upon sea or steel, but upon guilt, ambition, and the shifting tectonics of the human spirit.

Wood, ever the craftsman of character and structure, has written something that feels almost engineered rather than merely composed. The titular “Sea Scraper” — a subaquatic vertical city, equal parts utopia and tomb — functions as both literal setting and psychological metaphor. It’s a haunting concept, rendered with verisimilitude so striking you can practically taste the brine and hear the low hum of pressure valves in your bones. The novel’s central conceit — man’s attempt to outwit nature and consequence — carries the tensile intelligence of Ballard and the emotional granularity of McEwan.

What makes Sea Scraper truly special, though, is Wood’s lexical poise. His prose is suffused with a kind of melancholic grandeur — sentences that tilt between the mellifluous and the merciless. He writes with a syntax that occasionally verges on the histrionic, but somehow never topples into pretension. Words like “pelagic,” “antiphonal,” and “threnodic” appear not as decoration but as functional architecture — rare jewels set into steel.

The novel’s characters, particularly Elias, the obsessive engineer haunted by familial ghosts, are drawn with a surgeon’s patience. His descent (both literal and figurative) through the submerged levels of his creation feels almost Dantean. Wood explores the liminality between brilliance and mania, faith and futility, with an unflinching gaze that makes the reader complicit in every moral collapse.

And yet, for all its density and intellectual muscle, the book’s pulse remains profoundly human. The final third unfolds with elegiac restraint — quieter, almost reverent — as if Wood knows he has built something too vast to contain within mere plot. The closing pages left me, quite simply, bereft; not because of their sorrow, but because of their completion.

There are moments where the narrative’s intricacy borders on claustrophobic — I occasionally longed for more oxygen, more narrative sky — but these are minor abrasions on an otherwise magnificent surface.

Sea Scraper transcends its own audacity. It’s visionary, deeply humane, and wholly sui generis. Wood has built a cathedral beneath the waves — and somehow, impossibly, made it sing.

[Anna Carina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Das karge, raue Leben in der Einöde. Menschen, die von ihrer Arbeit für den Tag gerade so das Nötigste einbringen, um ihre Grundbedürfnisse decken zu können. Bildungsfern – die Gezeiten des Meeres verinnerlicht und an seine ungemütliche Umwelt so gut es geht angepasst – geht Thomas als Krabbenfischer seinem Handwerk nach.
Er ist eine introvertierte, wortkarge Figur, die trocken und nüchtern kommuniziert.

Benjamin Wood zeichnet eigenwillige Charaktere, die allesamt eine unverkennbare Stimme bekommen. Die Idee und gerade das Setting gefallen mir gut.
Er erzählt personal. Darüber gestattet er der Erzählstimme, selbst in etwas samtig Gleitendes, Traumartiges überzugehen, das der Tonalität – insbesondere von Thomas – entgegensteht. Meist gelingt dieser Kontrast.

Verstaut unter dem Ballast des Alltags flackern Träume, Wünsche, Interessen, Bedauern, Schmerz, Verlust … Für Thomas spielt die Musik, das Komponieren auf seiner Gitarre eine wichtige Rolle, die über Erinnerungsreste an den Vater eine affektiv aufgeladene Stimmung hineinbringt.

In einem Knäuel aus Unverarbeitetem und intuitivem Reinfühlen verfällt die Erzählstimme stellenweise in einen pathetisch überhöhten Ton – als wäre Wood selbst von der Szene und den Emotionen überwältigt worden. Der Text büßt dadurch etwas an Kohärenz auf der Ausdrucksebene ein. Ihm entgleitet seine Sprache.

Gegen Ende wird eine Figur aus der Londoner „feinen“ Gesellschaft eingeführt, die Wood rein funktional für Informationen nutzt, wodurch er der bereits wackeligen Form deutliche Risse zufügt.
Er konterkariert die soziale Rolle, indem er sie emotional-expressiv statt symbolisch-verhalten auftreten lässt – wie man es eigentlich aus diesem Milieu erwarten würde –, nur um schnell einen Abriss sämtlicher pikanter Details zu dem Filmemacher zu bekommen, mit dem Thomas seit zwei Tagen durch die Gegend zieht, um ihm Stellen für sein Filmmaterial zu zeigen. Jedenfalls liest sich diese Passage äußerst inszeniert und unglaubwürdig. Und das liegt, glaube ich, an der Glätte, dem nicht vorhandenen Widerstand des Textes.

Kurzes Gespräch der vornehmen Lady mit ihrem Bediensteten – so etwas meine ich mit „nicht vorhandenem Widerstand“:

„Ist alles in Ordnung, Stephen?“
„Ja, Chefin, alles unter Kontrolle.“
„Trinken Sie da einen Zitronentee?“
„Joa, ich habe mittlerweile eine Schwäche dafür. Es heißt, er hält jung.“
„Dann bleibe ich bei Kaffee.“
„Ist wahrscheinlich auch zu spät für Sie. Aber einige von uns bleiben zumindest im Herzen jung.“
„In der Tat.“ Sie zwinkert ihm zu.

Insgesamt wird zu viel gesprochen, statt über Bilder verdeutlicht. Der Text ist mir viel zu deskriptiv angelegt.
Gerade weil so viel unter der Oberfläche brodelt und er eine geniale Atmosphäre anlegt, ist es ein Jammer, dass die Figuren so wenig körperlich, über Gestik oder Mimik erfahrbar machen.

Die letzten 20 % kippen in ein absurd inszeniertes Theaterstück, dem die Hinführung fehlt. Für mich ist das ein klarer Bruch in der Komposition. Sämtliche Affekte fliegen durcheinander. Die Sprache wirbelt unkontrolliert und aufgedreht mit.
Solch eine seltsame formale Inkonsistenz habe ich so noch nicht gelesen (gehört). Die innere Logik des Textes legt diese Überdrehung überhaupt nicht an – sie kommt wie aus dem Nichts. Der Text wird selbst Symptom der Desorientierung des Filmemachers und seiner Situation. Er fängt sich danach auch nicht mehr, endet mit einer Szene, die etwas über Figuren erzählt, das irrelevant für den Inhalt ist. Als würden noch eben ein paar Lücken gestopft, die gar nicht da waren. Hä? Und die Mutter von Thomas bleibt unauserzählt zurück. Ich kapiere nicht, wie das Buch so dermaßen abschmieren kann.

Mmh, ich habe das Buch als Hörbuch gehört, demnach kann es auch sein, dass der Sprecher einen Teil zu dieser Inkonsistenz beiträgt. Insgesamt überzeugt mich die Geschichte zu wenig, um mir noch einmal die Mühe zu machen, sie zu lesen.
Ich hätte ihm gerne drei Sterne gegeben. Aber so, wie das Ding auseinanderfliegt und alles hinter sich wegreißt, kann ich das nicht. Dann auch noch dieser Kitsch in der Abschlussszene – was soll denn so was?

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early 1960s, twenty-year-old Thomas Flett lives with his mother in a fictional town in England on the coast of the Irish Sea. He takes his horse and cart to the shore each day to trap shrimp to eke out a meager living for himself and his mother. Thomas has traded his grandfather’s watch for a guitar. He occasionally sneaks out to play his guitar at a local pub, but he keeps his musical ambitions secret from his mother. A visitor comes to town and asks Thomas to help him scout the shoreline as a possible location for filming a movie.

This is a slim novel about class, family obligations, artistic ambition, and dreaming of a different life. It starts slowly but once the stranger arrives, it becomes an engaging read. I thought I might know where it was heading, but there are a few surprises in store, and one of these serves as a turning point in the story. It is beautifully written in an atmospheric style. I am not surprised that Seascraper has been longlisted for the Booker Prize. I would love to see it on the shortlist.

Update 9/12 - After reading this a second time, I am bumping the rating to 5 stars.

[Matt Milu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know this book probably has a deeper meaning - However, I spent the entire time reading it worrying about the safety of the horse! 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️!

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 - This is a beautiful, little novella and a great addition to the 2025 Booker longlist, which seems to have quite some intellectual works on it (Buckley, Kitamura), whereas this one is all feeling and emotion.

Tom scrapes shrimp from the beach and sells them to make a meager living. He's not even very good at it, but what he really wants is to make music and play the guitar. When a wealthy film director from Hollywood comes to his isolated British beach everything changes (or does it?).

The style and atmosphere reminded me of Carys Davies and also Audrey Magee's The Colony.

I listened partly to the English audio version and partly to the German one. Both are well done, but the English one is something special as the author himself reads it and, quite beautifully, even sings a song he composed for the book.