India, Sept. 9 -- Published just about a week before being nominated for the 2025 Booker Prize, Benjamin Wood's fifth novel is a testament to a life lived in confinement of sorts. Seascraper is tagged as 'a mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family's past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment.'

The reader follows Tom, who likes to be referred to as Thomas Flett by strangers. He has just hit his twenties. He left school midway to be a shanker under the judicious guidance of his grandfather, who he called Pops. Now, when he is not home with his delirious mother - who is the talk of the town - he hunts for shrimp, or tries his hand at the guitar. He lives a slow life that knows no change. The only ...