Crustaceans

First edition. 8vo. Pp. [vi], 231, [3 (blank)]. Blue paper-covered boards, lettered in silver to spine; tan endpapers.

Author's third novel. A poignant exploration of child loss from the perspective of a heart-broken father, who 'is taking his dead, absent son on an excursion to the seaside'. Four years in the writing following the birth of Cowan's daughter when issues of vulnerability and helpless dependency were uppermost in his mind. Former director of the UEA Creative Writing programme, his first novel, Pig, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Betty Trask Award and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Prize. "[A] bleakly beautiful novel... Cowan conveys the experience of loss with an extraordinary, aching precision." –Alan Mahar, Literary Review