The story is mostly focused at a single point in a young gay man’s life during a particular hot summer, following the famous flood. His sister, Birdee, has taken up with a one-armed former soldier, and Joe rekindles the relationship he had with another youth, Tim Fysh, a local fisherman—a relationship which is both loving and essential to both of the young men, but brutal at times. Matt Cain on Instagram: "I was hugely impressed by Jon Ransom’s debut novel The Whale Tattoo but The Gallopers is even better.

Then as the sea settles and Joe learns the truth about the river and finds that we all have the capability to hate, and that we can all make the choice not to. Haunted by the nagging water of the river and an ominous beached whale, Joe finds love in the form of a local fisherman named Tim Fysh. Subscribe to the Muswell Press Newsletter for all the very latest on our books and you’ll also receive a free ebook of The Ministry of Guidance and other stories.There is a sense of detachment from the characters which does feel very English, however, and which steers clear of the melodrama we might associate from the American authors. Armfield’s novel triumphed over five other shortlisted books: Seán Hewitt’s All Down Darkness Wide, Okechukwu Nzelu’s Here Again Now, Jack Parlett’s Fire Island, Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo and Sophie Ward’s The Schoolhouse.

Instead, the shock of feeling plays out on the surface, raising hair and skin alike, never slipping far enough to strip the narrative of its haunting visuals. Ransom’s short stories have appeared in SAND Journal, Foglifter Press and FIVE:2:ONE and most recently, Queer Life, Queer Love. When he meets up with his ex-lover, Tim Fysh, events spiral as Joe is caught between Tim’s aggressive brother Doug, Tim’s pregnant wife Dora and his own homophobic father. I did enjoy this chapter but struggled a bit to put it into the context of the story as a whole ,the characters were the same as the rest of the novel but since the scene was supposed to be set in 1988 they were the wrong age . Support our vendors this winter and beyond If you can't visit your local vendor on a regular basis, then the next best way to support them is with a subscription to the Big Issue.A young fem man, Eli is an outsider at a time when being 'a sissy' (language I found disturbing, however accurate) is guaranteed to cause problems. It’s Ransom’s raw reflection on life, his recognition of the brutality that transforms moments of passing rapture into something dreamy that leaves the reader entranced’.