by John Hawkes
First published 1966
Skipper navigates a world that seems determined to break him down at every turn. The threats come from all directions, some absurdly comic, others genuinely terrifying. He faces each challenge with an unexpected resilience, though survival often feels like a matter of luck rather than skill. The people around him range from merely indifferent to actively hostile, yet Skipper persists through circumstances that would crush most others. His journey reveals both the darkest impulses of human nature and the strange capacity for endurance that keeps him moving forward. What emerges is not triumph in any conventional sense, but something more fragile and precious: the simple fact of continuing to exist when everything suggests he should not.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, adventure
Vibes: dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, resilience
224 pages · Hardcover · Chatto and Windus
Content warnings: violence