by Graham Swift
First published 2010
Ray Johnson drives his three old friends from South London to Margate Pier, carrying the ashes of Jack Dodds in a jar. Jack wanted his remains scattered from the end of the pier where he once honeymooned with his wife Amy. But Amy refuses to come on this final journey, visiting their disabled son Michael instead. As the four men travel through Kent, they stop at Canterbury Cathedral and remember decades of friendship, rivalry, and loss. Ray recalls his affair with Amy. Lenny and Vic wrestle with their own family troubles. Each man confronts what Jack meant to him and what they owe the dead. The simple trip becomes a reckoning with loyalty, betrayal, and the weight of promises made to those who can no longer hold you accountable.
Genres: drama, 20th-century, contemporary, adult-fiction, british-literature, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, Margate Pier, South London
Period: Decades
323 pages · Paperback · Picador