The Woodcock (Hardback)

'A novel of shifting, silted landscapes and relationships laid bare, with quiet urgency The Woodcock reveals the complexities of desire, instinct and faith' -Eley Williams, author of 'The Liar's Dictionary'; 'Beautifully written - I could almost taste the salt' -Carys Bray, author of 'A Song for Issy Bradley'; 'An astonishing piece of literary ventriloquism - Smyth revisits the period novel with a contemporary sensibility and an incredible sense of place' -Owen Booth, author of 'The All True Adventures (And Rare Education) of The Daredevil Daniel Bones'; 'This is a funny and thoughtful novel. Sardonic sometimes, mordant at others, it is always witty, fast, and smart' -Tim Dee, author of 'Greenery'; 'Observing the consequences of the arrival of strangers through the salty prism of a small, northern English coastal town, Smyth has a naturalist's eye for detail, and turns it here upon human nature. 'The Woodcock' is beautiful and unsettling in equal measure' -Jon Dunn, author of 'Orchid Summer'; 'The world Smyth evokes with his vibrant prose leaps off the page - every character lives and breathes, and beneath its ordinary surface, 1920s Gravely teems with beauty, complexity and mystery' -Jenn Ashworth, author of 'Fell'; 'Compelling' -Eithne Farry, Daily Mail; 'Accomplished' -iPaper; 'Smyth's evocation of place and nature [...] is imbued with a compelling sense of closely observed realism' -Alexander Larman, Literary Review; 'The bleakness of the coast, the mist, the shifting nature of the sands all speak of contingency, brutality, deception. [...] The period detail and the sensibilities and prejudices of the time are portrayed with great deftness' -Alice Jolly, TLS