Ross Raisin

'Ramblers. Daft sods in pink and green hats. It wasn't even cold. They moved down the field swing-swaying like a line of drunks, addled with the air and the land, and the smell of manure.' This is the voice of our narrator, Sam Marsdyke, the teenage son of a farmer up on the Yorkshire Moors. He spends his days working the sheep, mending fences, trying to dodge the eye of his brutal, silent father, and most of all, watching the transformation of the farms and villages around him. From the top of the moors he watches the goofy ramblers and the earnest 'towns', the families from York, who are feverishly buying up the farmhouses left empty by bankrupt farmers.And as he watches, one young daughter of a new family catches his eye. As he falls for the young, sophisticated girl from London, she begins to see him as a means to escape. She wants to rebel against her parents and he wants to fulfil the fantasy he harbours about her and so they run away together. But this journey across the moors will take a terrifying menacing turn which, for him, will prove his terrible undoing. Sam Marsdyke is an unforgettable character at the heart of this extraordinary novel, a novel that is hugely funny, darkly menacing and will resonate long after you have finished the last page.

In one of the most celebrated debut novels of recent years, Ross Raisin tells the story of solitary young farmer, Sam Marsdyke, and his extraordinary battle with the world. Expelled from school and cut off from the town, mistrusted by his parents and avoided by city incomers, Marsdyke is a loner until he meets rebellious new neighbour Josephine. But what begins as a friendship and leads to thoughts of escape across the moors turns to something much, much darker with every step.

Granta Best Young British Novelist and Sunday Times Young Writer of the YearMick 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. 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."There are rare novels that embed themselves in your sensibility so profoundly you can imagine conversations arising between characters that never occurred on the page . . . A work of grace: a human being rendered by a triumph of ventriloquism and empathy Alan Warner, GuardianSpectacularTime OutA poignant, shocking, wry, shaming, yet profoundly generous, and cunningly crafted classic ... If youre looking for the definitive novel for our times, this is the strongest candidate Ive read for agesScotsmanRaisin is a novelist of terrific ability and great verve Philip Hensher, Sunday Telegraph

This book demystifies the writing process, empowering you to write your own novel or short story. The author explains expert technique in a clear and jargon-free way, with examples from twenty-five masters of prose. For aspiring writers of all ages and abilities, Read This If You Want to Be a Great Writer will motivate and strengthen your writing talent.

From the prizewinning author of Gods Own Country and A Natural comes a moving and intimate exploration of marriage, devotion and sacrifice, and a womans enduring search for freedom.One of our best novelistsDaily MailA superb achievementGuardianMoving...and beautifulIrish TimesAnita is a talented sous-chef at a high-end London restaurant. At home, however, her husband Patrick is suffering from dementia and declining rapidly.As she is thrown between two conflicting worlds, Anita must make a decision: should she free them both by acting on his last plea for mercy, or should she remain faithful to the person Patrick used to be?Its a decision complicated by ambition and the guilt of her own past - and by her intensifying friendship with another man, Peter, and the temptation of a new life.

Tom has always known exactly the person he is going to be. A successful footballer. A man others look up to. Now, though, the bright future he imagined for himself is threatened.The Premier League academy of his boyhood has let him go. At nineteen, Tom finds himself playing for a tiny club in a town he has never heard of. But as he navigates his isolation and his desperate need for recognition, a sudden and thrilling encounter offers him the promise of an escape, and Tom is forced to question whether he can reconcile his supressed desires with his dreams of success.Leah, the captains wife, has almost forgotten the dreams she once held, for her career, her marriage. Moving again, as her husband is transferred from club to club, she is lost, disillusioned with where life has taken her.A Natural delves into the heart of a professional football club: the pressure, the loneliness, the threat of scandal, the fragility of the body and the struggle, on and off the pitch, with conforming to the person that everybody else expects you to be.The pantheon of top-class soccer novelists has never been large, but with A Natural Ross Raisin can immediately be ushered into the Premier League executive boxTLS

Sam Marsdyke is a lonely young man, dogged by an incident in his past and forced to work his family farm instead of attending school in his Yorkshire village. He methodically fills his life with daily routines and adheres to strict boundaries that keep him at a remove from the townspeople. But one day he spies Josephine, his new neighbor from London. From that moment on, Sams carefully constructed protections begin to crumbleand what starts off as a harmless friendship between an isolated loner and a defiant teenage girl takes a most disturbing turn.

Granta Best Young British Novelist and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, Shortlisted for NINE literary awardsRoss Raisins 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 Utterly frightening and electrifying Joshua Ferris Astonishing, funny, unsettling ... An unforgettable creation [whose] literary forebears include Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield and Alex from A Clockwork OrangeThe TimesRemarkable, compelling, very funny and very disturbing . . . like no other character in contemporary fictionSunday TimesIn Gods Own Country, one of the most celebrated debut novels of recent years, Ross Raisin tells the story of solitary young farmer, Sam Marsdyke, and his extraordinary battle with the world.Expelled from school and cut off from the town, mistrusted by his parents and avoided by city incomers, Marsdyke is a loner until he meets rebellious new neighbour Josephine. But what begins as a friendship and leads to thoughts of escape across the moors turns to something much, much darker with every step.Powerful, engrossing, extraordinary, sinister, comic. A masterful debutObserver

Un apasionado relato sobre las luces y sombras del mundo del fútbol profesional.Tom ha sabido siempre el tipo de persona que quiere ser: un futbolista de éxito. Un hombre al que otros hombres admiran y respetan. Pero el futuro brillante que imagino esta amenazado. Mientras se mueve entre la soledad y la necesidad de reconocimiento, un encuentro fortuito le ofrece una via de escape y le hara cuestionarse a si mismo. Un talento natural profundiza en el corazon de un club de futbol profesional: la presion, la soledad, la amenaza de escandalos, la fragilidad del cuerpo humano y la lucha, dentro y fuera del campo, por convertirnos en la persona que todos esperan que seamos.