Robert Lautner

Before there was Jaws, there was... QUINT. This powerful and brilliant literary novel takes a character who, through Peter Benchley's novel and particularly Steven Spielberg's film, has become etched in our cultural imagination: Quint, the taciturn and grizzled sea captain who survived the shark-ridden sinking of the USS Indianapolis only to meet his end in the maw of a Great White at the end of JAWS.From the very first line, Quint's voice is fresh, vivid and immediately transfixing. From his early seafaring days, via the life-altering events of 1945 to his arrival on Amity, this is a glorious literary picaresque with echoes of Hemingway.

You already know the end of his story: now find out where it all began. So much more than a fisherman, Quint is a survivor, a fighter, a man who has left three wives in his wake.From his time as a young sailor facing the horrors of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, to a deadly night-long showdown with a frenzy of sharks years later, before he finally settles on the island of Amity: this extraordinary act of literary ventriloquism is a vivid and utterly compelling reimagining of the life of a truly iconic character.

Tom Walker joins his father on the road, selling Samuel Colt’s newly-invented revolver. Travelling west a devastating encounter cuts their journey short, and leaves Tom alone in the wilderness. Tom’s resolve to survive initiates an unlikely partnership that will be tested by the dangers of the road, where outlaws prowl.