Published: 03/11/2016
ISBN: 9781847088833
Granta Books
112 pages

Cove

Cynan Jones

WINNER OF THE BBC NATIONAL SHORT STORY AWARD 2017

Out at sea, in a sudden storm, a man is struck by lightning. When he wakes, injured and adrift on a kayak, his memory of who he is and how he came to be there is all but shattered. Now he must pit himself against the pain and rely on his instincts to get back to shore, and to the woman he dimly senses waiting for his return. With its taut narrative and its wincingly visceral portrait of a man locked in an uneven struggle with the forces of nature, this is a powerful new work from one of the most distinctive voices in British fiction.

I found it hypnotically compelling, as exciting as it is meditative, and adored the pared down yet powerful, rippling, sensate writing. A terrific read

Colin Barrett, author, Young Skins

After the scalpel-sharp prose of The Dig here Cynan Jones cuts into the language even deeper: in this new novel he pares down the prose to shining shards and crystalline phrases. Cove finds this master of concision on remarkable form, telling a sleek tale about one man and a boat which lingers hauntingly in the mind. At a time when novels are getting bigger and more bloated, this goes the other way - showing us how choice words in perfect order can expand the horizon well beyond a simple line

Jon Gower

To read Cove is to take a masterclass in taking out everything but the essentials. This is writing stripped back to the bone, and storytelling that gets under the skin. Powerful, terrifying, brilliantly done

Jon McGregor

The Author

Cynan Jones was born in 1975 near Aberaeron, Wales. He is the author of five short novels, The Long Dry, Everything I Found on the Beach, Bird, Blood, Snow, The Dig, and Cove. His work is published in over 20 countries and has won several prizes including a Betty Trask Award, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award, the Wales Book of the Year Fiction prize, and the BBC National Short Story Award. He has also written stories for radio and screen, and a collection of tales for children. Other writing has appeared in numerous publications including Granta and the New Yorker. He was elected a Fellow of the RSL in 2019. www.cynanjones.com

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