Spartina

Winner of the 1989 National Book Award A classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm,Spartinais the lyrical and compassionate story of Dick Pierce, a commercial fisherman along the shores of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. A kind, sensitive, family man, he is also prone to irascible outbursts against the people he must work for, now that he can no longer make his living from the sea. Pierce's one great passion, a fifty-foot fishing boat calledSpartina, lies unfinished in his back yard. Determined to get the funds he needs to buy her engine, he finds himself taking a foolish, dangerous risk. But his real test comes when he must weather a storm at sea in order to keep his dream alive. Moving and poetic,Spartinais a masterly story of one man's ongoing struggle to find his place in the world.

John Casey is the author of <b>The Half-life of Happiness</b>, naow available in hardcover from Knopf.