Ocean - by Polly Clark (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

'Strange, wonderful and compelling' - Louis de Bernières A powerful yacht, a warring family, the unforgiving deep... Caught in a terrorist explosion on the London Underground, inner-city schoolteacher Helen is pregnant and lost until a stranger leads her to safety then vanishes. Obsessed with finding him, she begins to lose her grip on reality - and her family. As their marriage fractures, her husband Frank proposes a daring plan: sell up and sail the Atlantic with their son Nicholas and troubled foster daughter Sindi on the Innisfree, the very boat where the couple first fell in love. What begins as a daring bid for salvation turns into an epic journey. The ocean proves as wild and unpredictable as the heartbreak Helen is trying to outrun. Will the voyage meant to save them destroy them instead? With a fiercely funny and maverick heroine at its helm, Ocean is a powerful exploration of the uncharted waters of the human heart. The award-winning author of Larchfield takes us on a gripping, beautifully written voyage into the depths of what it means to heal - and to live.

About the Author

Polly Clark was born in Canada and brought up in Scotland. Her debut novel, Larchfield (2017), fictionalised a little-known period in the life of the poet W.H. Auden. It won the Mslexia Prize, as well as critical plaudits from Margaret Atwood, Louis de Bernières and Richard Ford. Her follow-up, Tiger (2019), was shortlisted for the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year. She is also the author of four collections of poetry. Her first, Kiss (2000), won an Eric Gregory Award and her second, Take Me With You (2005), was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. She divides her time between the west of Scotland and a houseboat in London.