SHORTLISTED FOR 2024 CAP INDIE BOOK AWARDS - NON FICTION

In the summer of 1999, twenty-four-year-old Irishman Eoin Ryan was following the well-beaten path through Australia’s backpacker haunts and hostels. In a search for the road less travelled, he blagged his way onto a prawn trawler plying the tropical waters of the Coral Sea.
There he discovered a rarely seen world of hard labour and even harder fishermen, where drinking, fighting, storms and hungry sharks were a part of everyday life. Eoin’s diary captures what one crew member describes as ‘the craziest six weeks of fishing ever’. But when conflict on board reaches a climax, what began as adventure ultimately degenerates into a gripping struggle to stay alive.
Told in raw, uncompromising language, this is an exuberant story of adventure, crisis and brutality, culminating in an unforgettable moment of redemptive grace.