‘Strange, wonderful and compelling’ – Louis de Bernières
A powerful yacht, a warring family, the unforgiving deep...
Caught in a terrorist explosion on the London Underground, inner-city schoolteacher Helen is pregnant and lost until a stranger leads her to safety then vanishes. Obsessed with finding him, she begins to lose her grip on reality – and her family.
As their marriage fractures, her husband Frank proposes a daring plan: sell up and sail the Atlantic with their son Nicholas and troubled foster daughter Sindi on the Innisfree, the very boat where the couple first fell in love.
What begins as a daring bid for salvation turns into an epic journey. The ocean proves as wild and unpredictable as the heartbreak Helen is trying to outrun. Will the voyage meant to save them destroy them instead?
With a fiercely funny and maverick heroine at its helm, Ocean is a powerful exploration of the uncharted waters of the human heart. The award-winning author of Larchfield takes us on a gripping, beautifully written voyage into the depths of what it means to heal – and to live.
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‘This novel shines in its exploration of the deep weirdness of grief and trauma, [and] the cruelty of love gone sour is skilfully captured… But there’s undoubtedly an entertainment factor here – the plot feels akin at times to that of a thriller – which many readers will surely find compelling’
" - Irish Times
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‘Ocean – the novel – is a propulsive, visceral, gasp-inducing page-turner, as wild and unpredictable as the real thing. It’s also an insightful exploration of the human heart and psyche’
" - Sunday Post
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‘A wild ride from start to finish. I thoroughly enjoyed it’
" - BBC Radio Scotland
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‘A rollercoaster of a read, Ocean is a powerful page-turner with a series of sensational twists’
" - W.I. Life
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‘Polly Clark writes shocking twists and keeps readers captivated until the last page – drama, drama, drama!’
" - Buchkultur
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‘Ocean is both funny and moving, authentic and far-fetched, real and symbolic. You find yourself rooting for the characters, then being frustrated and troubled by them, disliking them then acknowledging their redeeming features. And throughout it all, the writing is beautiful and compelling. I loved it. I want to read it again’
" - More About Books
