The Offing

A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ... He’s such a good and brave writer … there’s a lot of heart in this book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it’s so much more hopeful than that … there’s light in this landscape ... A very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of ways

MONOCLE

Every page is studded with descriptive jewels … Deeply attuned to the natural world … Poetic … This book is a sensual pleasure … It’s about the forever things: good food, and art, and friendship, and how those pleasures can redeem us, even during the harshest of times

NEW STATESMAN

Quietly gripping … Written with Myers’s customary grit and brio … A welcome advance, one that sees Myers effortlessly extending his range

GUARDIAN

What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It’s gorgeous

MAX PORTER

A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place

HERALD

Myers’ prose and poetry makes a celebration of the "new Ondaatje" a far less preposterous mantle than it may seem

CAUGHT BY THE RIVER

Glorious ... Leaves an indelible impression ... A moving and subtle novel in many ways, infused with a love of the minute pleasures in life, and the lasting regrets

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Imbued with all the evocative rhythms of the passing seasons. This is what folk music would look like if it came in the written form

THE CRACK

Book by book, over the past decade, Ben Myers has proved himself to be one of the most singular, moving and crucial voices of our times, making The Offing one of the must-read books of the year

DAVID PEACE

It reminds me of a time when David Bowie could serve up something new with almost every album ... the book portrays an uncanny feminine touch and though the trip is gentle, there are deep undercurrents in this heart of a new rural darkness

CAUGHT BY THE RIVER

A tender, tragic but warming story of love and living amid the flux of time, the sea and the seasons, The Offing is both beautiful and beautifully told. Through its pages, Myers carefully and thoughtfully reaffirms the values and riches of human connection, freedom and the joy of living on your own terms

ROB COWEN, award-winning author of Common Ground

A gorgeous summer song of a book, quietly and precisely what the world needs, calling friendship and gentleness from people, place and language, The Offing is about the best of us. It is to be treasured and passed on

HORATIO CLARE

Intense and evocative

OBSERVER, Picks for 2019

Ben Myers once again writes a rich backdrop of the natural world for this deeply tender, timely and necessary story about the power of relationships across the boundaries of age, class and gender. Everyone reading this book of hope will wish that at sixteen they too had met a Dulcie Piper

LUKE TURNER

Beautiful and evocative landscape writing, as you’d expect, but also a sensitive exploration of love, growing up, friendship and becoming an artist. Dulcie Piper is one of the best characters I’ve read in ages and I already miss her

JENN ASHWORTH

Myers’ eye for the natural world is as good as ever … A keenly observed and heartfelt appreciation of landscape and place

HERALD

‘Arresting and profoundly moving ... A state-of-the-nation novel, driven by love and concern ... A lament for the crumbling best of England. This a novel for our times’

IRISH TIMES

A tight, lyrical and almost painfully truthful novel shot through with melancholy, desire and a fierce longing for the countryside … It confirms Myers’ place as one of the best writers of nature at work today

i