Books Books
Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Literary Fiction
Number of pages: 228
ISBN: 9781781727065
Publication date: May 22, 2023
Price: £9.99
Category: Ebooks, Fiction, Literary Fiction
Number of pages: 228
ISBN: 9781781727072
Publication date: May 22, 2023
Price: £7.99
Out of stock
Shortlisted for the Society of Authors Betty Trask Prize
1792. Nantucket whalers are invited to found the port of Milford Haven in Wales. What does the arrival of these hardy Quakers – immigrants to America a century before – mean for the local people? And what is the meaning of the beached whale that preceded them? Two cultures rub against each other and distrust grows, driven by the local preacher. As Whaling unfolds concern swerves into hysteria against the incomers and the preacher plans a grotesque, Jonah-inspired fate for the whalers.
Nathan Munday’s debut novel is an exciting mélange of original fiction, historical writing and whaling images. In it he explores our relationship with the natural world, the boundary between faith and superstition, and the age old problem of immigration. Set in historical fact this is a narrative at once modern and contemporaneous, the writing rich in imagery and deceptively tense as its story slides into allegory.
Nathan Munday
Nathan Munday is a Welsh writer from Carmarthenshire. Trained as an academic, he spent his postgraduate study researching religious literature at Cardiff University.
In 2019, he escaped north to Tŷ Mawr Wybrnant, the birthplace of Bible translator and language-saviour William Morgan (c. 1545-1604). This unique ‘Library in the Wilderness’ was where he and his wife Jenna (originally from North Holland) worked and lived for a year and a half, lighting a fire every morning, battling the unpredictable river, and welcoming over 4000 visitors from across the globe. As custodian, he had the privilege of looking after a large book collection which included the 1588 Welsh Bible. He then spent two years working in international development for Christian Aid.
His writing spans many genres. In 2016 Nathan won the M. Wynn Thomas New Scholar Prize with an essay on the poetry of R. S. Thomas, a pivotal figure in his doctoral studies. In the same year, he also came second in the New Welsh Writing Awards with his creative non-fiction book Seven Days: A Pyrenean Adventure published by Parthian Books in 2017. Chris Moss praised the ‘energy and ambition’ of this work while novelist Niall Griffiths called it a ‘beautiful, wise, and moving book’. He came runner-up twice for his poetry in the Terry Hetherington Award (2019, 2020). His work can be read in Cheval, Walking, New Welsh Review, Wales Arts Review, Fine Books & Collections, International Journal of Welsh Writing in English, and Hinterland Magazine.
When he’s not writing, Nathan is training for Christian ministry, exploring the high places with Jenna, or playing with his son Seth Johannes. He hopes that Seth will join them on the slopes soon.
‘Dreadful things happen. Why? That question pulses through this thoughtful and intelligent novel…’
Mary Anne Constantine, Planet Magazine
“Munday’s book blurs the lines between prose and poetry, fact and fabrication, setting out a counterfactual collage of a tale always asking: What if? … Stylistically, Munday exalts diversity … each section—prose, poem, or print—tends to differ from the one before it, and often runs to just a page or two … There is greater diversity still within Munday’s writing. Frequently his prose breaks down into words then scattered across the page, or ordered into patterns … This comes across less like a writer flexing his muscles and more like one playing with language for a thematic and narrative end.”
Harry Readhead, The Cardiff Review
