Waterline: A Novel

From Ross Raisin, the highly acclaimed author of Out Backward—a debut novel Colm Tóibín called “compelling, disturbing and often very funny”—comes the moving and story of an ex-shipyard worker’s journey of grief and reclamation in the wake of his wife’s death. Lyrical and resonant, with echoes of Paul Harding’s Tinkers and Anne Enright’s The Gathering, Raisin’s blue collar story of a man’s fractured search for a new beginning is a powerfully voiced, penetratingly personal narrative of alienation and, ultimately, redemption.

“Ross Raisin confirms himself as an exciting talent, a unique, gifted, and generous voice, a young writer with a vision broad far beyond his years.” —David Vann, Financial Times
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Mick Little used to be a shipbuilder on the Glasgow yards. But as they closed one after another down the river, the search for work took him and his beloved wife, Cathy, to Australia, and back again, struggling for a living, longing for home. Thirty years later the yards are nearly all gone and Cathy is dead. And now Mick will have to find a new way to live: to get away, start again, and try to deal with the guilt he feels over her death.

With devastating vision, Ross Raisin brings to life the story of an ordinary man caught in the outer reaches of modern existence, suffering the loss of a great love. Waterline paints a captivating portrait of the alienation of lives lived quietly all around us, and of one man’s existence dissolved through grief, and the long journey home.

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“Raisin is shaping up to be one of our most extraordinary writers.” - Catherine Taylor, Telegraph (UK)

“The vernacular is only one aspect of the vitality and inventiveness of Raisin’s writing…. A writer of outstanding talent and it will be fascinating to see what he comes up with next.” - Peter Carty, Independent (UK)

“What impresses about Raisin is the all-encompassing nature of his imaginative empathy, and the way in which he makes the reader complicit in his character’s fate . . . Electric.” - Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times (London)

“Affecting...” - Rachel Nolan, New York Times Book Review

“A standout….Evocative…. strong echoes of George Orwell’s classic, Down and Out in Paris and London.” - Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

“An indelible portrait of a man in grief….adds up to a portrait of grief that as haunting as it is elegant - and yet it somehow manages to crackle with energy at the same time.” - Michael Hingston, Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Superb….Spectacularly moving and accomplished.” - Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

“Raisin works magic with bleak and disturbing material….In Raisin’s hands the story is magnetic….Without ever hitting a preachy note, here is a book that makes homelessness human, sometimes even funny.” - Dafna Izenberg, Maclean's

“A powerful depiction of the dislocating effects of grief....genuinely moving.” - Publishers Weekly

“Ross Raisin’s debut, God’s Own Country, was deservedly acclaimed, and Waterline is similarly impressive, with Raisin again making vivid, compelling use of the vernacular…. It remains to the last supremely empathic, and Raisin’s powers of observation intense.” - Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail (UK)

“Heartbreaking…. Waterline is a great read, and Mick’s story is one you won’t forget. With this second novel, Ross Raisin confirms himself as an exciting talent, a unique, gifted, and generous voice, a young writer with a vision broad far beyond his years.” - David Vann, Financial Times

“A very strong debut.” - The Spectator for Out Backward

“The hero of Ross Raisin’s God’s Own Country told his tale of town versus country in an impressively angry, highly individual voice.” - Telegraph for Out Backward

“Utterly frightening and electrifying.” - Joshua Ferris for Out Backward

“Out Backward more [than A Clockwork Orange] convincingly registers the internal logic of unredeemable delinquency, a dangerous subjectivity that perverts compassion and sees everything as an extension of itself.” - Washington Post Book World for Out Backward

“Excellent…. Sam is endowed with a richly lyrical narrative voice and an extravagant vocabulary…. He is also extremely entertaining company…. A wonderfully unique novel - a comic commentary on rural decline and a deeply unsettling character study.” - The Sunday Telegraph for Out Backward

“It is a joy to read for the dialect alone, a linguistic feast…. Sam’s is such a fantastically vivid voice that it’s not surprising reality pales in comparison—that’s part of his problem. It’s also what makes God’s Own Country such an absorbing read, and Raisin a young writer to watch.” - The Guardian for Out Backward

“Remarkable.” - Sunday Times (London) for Out Backward

“In Sam Marsdyke, Raisin has created a truly memorable and distinctive voice. It’s a very impressive debut.” - Daily Mail for Out Backward

“This is a near-perfectly executed book, seamlessly constructed.” - Brooklyn Rail for Out Backward

“A mature, taut and beautifully written study of a perennial outsider.” - Sunday Times (London) for Out Backward

“Compelling…. An entirely original voice…Marsdyke, who blends colloquialism with flights of verbal fancy, is like no other character in contemporary fiction…. He is both very funny and very disturbing.” - The Sunday Times (London) for Out Backward

“It’s Marsdyke’s voice that is Raisin’s most extraordinary and original achievement, a fabulously onomatopoeic patois woven from the language of the Yorkshire farmyard; a stream of consciousness that slides between the comic and the sinister…. Raisin is one to watch; controlled, mature and compelling, this is a masterful debut.” - The Observer for Out Backward

“Spend just a few pages in the company of Sam Marsdyke…and it’s an unforgettable experience. Rare are the writers who have created such a funny yet terrifying narrator; the instant comparison is Francie Bradie in Patrick McCabe’s classic The Butcher Boy.” - Bookseller for Out Backward

“A first novel…with panache…. Engaging. Raisin’s achievement in creating and sustaining such a richly distinctive narrative voice is considerable.” - The Independent for Out Backward

“Out Backward is a helluva read—poetically pitched in the mode of The Butcher Boy, and with a plot that you race through. Raisin draws profound moral subtlety and complexity from his sociopath; we’re deep in the madman’s head, ala Dostoevsky or Kafka. This is a dazzler.” - Mary Karr for Out Backward

“Chilling.” - Kirkus Reviews for Out Backward

“The bony grip exerted by debut London novelist Ross Raisin’s Out Backward is muscled by voice…. [The book] reads like a long ballad sung by a lonesome madman.” - Toronto Star for Out Backward

“Recalls the visceral lyricism of Irvine Welsh…a rewarding—if somewhat disturbing—tale of fear, obsession, and sexuality.” - School Library Journal for Out Backward

“[Out Backward] will grab you….Sam has a lot to say about the class system, apparently still the bane of Britain…. The ending of ‘Out Backward’ leaves open the possibility of a sequel. And the possibility seems curiously pleasing.” - St. Louis Post Dispatch for Out Backward

“[A] lyrical debut….The Yorkshire dialect and a stream-of-consciousness narration…lend an air of authority to this tightly plotted and disturbing effort.” - Publishers Weekly for Out Backward

“From the first sentence, Ross Raisin’s deft (and daft) use of language makes the reader swoon. Soon enough, though, you start to feel woozy, as if drunk or under a spell, and by the time you realize exactly what’s happening, he and his narrator are holding you close and it’s too late to get away. Out Backward is equally twisted and brilliant-a lovely, upsetting book.” - Stewart O'Nan for Out Backward

“The first thing you’ll notice about Raisin’s debut novel, Out Backward, is its Yorkshire-farmer dialogue. The second thing you’ll notice is that its teen narrator is a spying, sneaky sociopath…. if you stick around, you’ll get a concentrated dose of evil.” - Time Out New York for Out Backward

“Out Backward captures a dark voice with considerable flair and wit and skill. Raisin’s control of tone is original, at times playful, a cross between the whimsy and lyricism of Huckleberry Finn and the nightmare of The Butcher Boy. This is a compelling, disturbing and often very funny novel.” - Colm Toibin for Out Backward

“Ross Raisin writes with a dazzling, dynamic originality: his senses are wildly heightened, and his language is smart, caustic, and precise. Out Backward moves deftly from sensitive to brutal, from wistful to hilarious, and Sam Marsdyke, its lovably oddball farmboy narrator, is unforgettable. This is a great, great book.”— - Scott Heim for Out Backward

“Waterline announces Raisin as a profound thinker as well as a distinctive voice.” - Esquire (UK)

“The lush language in this debut novel has some fine literary ears (Colm Toibin, Stewart O’Nan, Mary Karr) in awe. . . . Your heart goes out to Sam, creature of the moors. There’s an ancient Celtic strain in Raisin’s writing, all but unspoken: the idea that monsters are the embodiments of our darkest selves, pushed to the edges of normal life, straining on the outskirts.” - Los Angeles Times for Out Backward

“Ross Raisin’s story of how a disturbed but basically well-intentioned rural youngster turns into a malevolent sociopath is both chilling in its effect and convincing in its execution.” - J. M. Coetzee for Out Backward

“A few pages with Sam Marsdyke are unforgettable. Rare are the writers who can create such a funny yet terrifying narrator; the comparison is the murderous Francie Brady in Patrick McCabe’s classic The Butcher Boy…. Deeply unsettling, yet far from a grim read…well worth a visit.” - Financial Times for Out Backward