Woman at Sea

Product Description

'A tale of travel and adventure, the story of a body utterly surrendered to pain and joy. It is mind-blowing, a delight.' Le Monde

Lili is a runaway. She's left behind her native France to go in search of freedom, of adventure, of life. Her search takes her to Kodiak, Alaska, home to a ragtag community of fishermen, army vets and drifters who man the island's fishing fleet. Despite her tiny frame, faltering English and lack of experience, Lili lands a job on board the Rebel, the only woman on the boat.

Out on the open sea, everything is heightened- colours are more vivid, sounds are louder and the work is harder than anything she's ever known. The terrifying intensity of the ocean is addictive to the point of danger. But Lili is not alone- in her fellow crewmembers she finds kindred spirits - men living on the edge, drawn to extremes.

Based on Catherine Poulain's own experiences, and written in taut, muscular prose, Woman at Sea cuts through the noise of life and straight to the heart of our innermost longings.
'A tale of travel and adventure, the story of a body utterly surrendered to pain and joy. It is mind-blowing, a delight.' Le Monde

Lili is a runaway. She's left behind her native France to go in search of freedom, of adventure, of life. Her search takes her to Kodiak, Alaska, home to a ragtag community of fishermen, army vets and drifters who man the island's fishing fleet. Despite her tiny frame, faltering English and lack of experience, Lili lands a job on board the Rebel, the only woman on the boat.

Out on the open sea, everything is heightened- colours are more vivid, sounds are louder and the work is harder than anything she's ever known. The terrifying intensity of the ocean is addictive to the point of danger. But Lili is not alone- in her fellow crewmembers she finds kindred spirits - men living on the edge, drawn to extremes.

Based on Catherine Poulain's own experiences, and written in taut, muscular prose, Woman at Sea cuts through the noise of life and straight to the heart of our innermost longings.
Author- Catherine Poulain has lived on the road and on the sea for most of her life. Employed in fish farms in Iceland and as a farm worker in Canada, she also worked as a barmaid in Hong Kong and in naval shipyards in the US. She spent ten years fishing in Alaska before returning to France, where she was born. Woman at Sea is her first novel.

Translator- Adriana Hunter has translated some seventy books, mostly works of literary fiction. She won the 2011 Scott-Moncrieff Prize for her translation of VUronique Olmi's Bord de Mer (Beside the Sea), and the 2013 French-American Foundation and Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize for her translation of HervU Le Tellier's Electrico W, and has been shortlisted twice for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. She lives in Kent, England.