{"product_id":"9780008390952_sea-state","title":"Sea State","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘\u003cem\u003eSea State \u003c\/em\u003emarks the arrival of a gifted and exciting new voice’ Jon McGregor, author of\u003cem\u003e Reservoir 13\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE PORTICO PRIZE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/em\u003e BEST BOOK OF 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA candid examination of the life of North Sea oil riggers, and an explosive portrayal of masculinity, loneliness and female desire.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn her mid-30s and sprung out of a terrible relationship, Tabitha quit her job at a women’s magazine, left London and put her savings into a six-month lease on a flat in a dodgy neighbourhood in Aberdeen – she was going to make good on a long-deferred idea for a book about oil rigs and the men who work on them. Why oil rigs? “I wanted to see what men were like, with no women around.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSea State\u003c\/em\u003e is, on the one hand, a portrait of an overlooked industry, and a fascinating subculture in its own right: ‘offshore’ is a way of life for generations of British workers, primarily working class men. Offshore is also a potent metaphor for a lot of things we might rather keep at bay – class, masculinity, the North-South divide, the transactional nature of desire, the terrible slipperiness of the ladder that could lead us towards (or away from) real security, just out of reach.‎\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd \u003cem\u003eSea State\u003c\/em\u003e is, too, the story of a journalist whose distance from her subject becomes perilously thin. In Aberdeen, when she’s not researching the book, Tabitha takes pills and dances with a forgotten kind of abandon – reliving her Merseyside youth, when the music was good and the boys were bad. Twenty years on, there is Caden: a married rig worker who spends three weeks on and three weeks off. Alone and increasingly precarious, she dives in deep. The relationship, reckless and explosive, lays them both bare.‎\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tabitha Lasley","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47284852981909,"sku":"9780008390952","price":13.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008390952.jpg?v=1776992085","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008390952_sea-state","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}