num_pages: 288
description: November, 1836. A fierce gale beaches an American sail ship off the English coast, injuring an African slave below decks and eventually disgorging 300 head of cattle and rowdy American sailors into a hardscrabble fishing village. The same storm drives into port a steamer, bearing one Aymer Smith, the well-intentioned but foolish prig who will deprive the town of its livelihood, free the African slave, and set into motion a whole series of unforeseeable, tragicomic events. One of the most seductive and surprising novelists at work today, Jim Crace once again creates a richly strange and believable world; one uncannily familiar to our own.
language: English
title: Signals of Distress
titlecomplete: Signals of Distress
genres: British Literature, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literature, Contemporary, Fiction
ratings_count: 376
awards: awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
publisher: Picador