Book description
When they were young men, Kim and his best friend, the charismatic
waterman Garland Rain, travelled all year round, working as dive guides.
Now Kim is married and a father, but when Garland asks for his help on a
three-week trip to the spectacular reefs of the southern Red Sea, it
sounds like the perfect job. It’s a chance for Kim to provide for his
wife, Araba, and their three daughters, while doing what he loves most.
The two divers soon find out that their dive boat, the Shang-Tu
, is owned by Teddy King, a gargantuan and threatening figure who lives
a life of drugs and violence. While Garland seeks to contain Teddy’s
worst excesses, and tries to ensure that the guests are diving safely,
Kim finds himself increasingly drawn to the dark side of the boat’s
temptations. As the partying continues, and threatens to consume Kim and
overwhelm Garland, one of the other divers is lost at sea in what seems
to be an accident.
Back on dry land, Kim finds that the decisions you make in the moment
can come back to haunt you, even follow you home.
Brilliantly suspenseful, The Sea on Fire
is a story about a man torn between responsibilities to his family and
the freedom of the open water. Howard Cunnell has a Ph. D. from the
University of London, and has been a Leverhulme Fellow at the University
of Sussex. He is the editor of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road: The
Original Scroll
, which the New York Times
described as ‘the living version for our time’. A former professional
scuba diving instructor, he lives in London.
