num_pages: 276
description: November, 1836. A fierce gale beaches an American steamer off the English coast, injuring an African slave below decks and eventually disgorging 300 head of cattle and an innful of rowdy American sailors into a hardscrabble fishing village. The same storm drives into port a ship from London, bearing one Aymer Smith, the foolish well-intentioned prig who will deprive the town of its livelihood, free the American slave, and set into motion a whole series of unforeseeable, tragicomic events. Chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the best books of 1995, Signals of Distress , Jim Crace's fourth novel, once again displays the author's gift for inventing richly strange and believable worlds that uncannily foretell our own.
language: English
title: Signals Of Distress
titlecomplete: Signals Of Distress
genres: Fiction, British Literature, Literature, Novels, Contemporary, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 376
awards: awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize
publisher: Ecco