Search
      Tap cover to enlarge

      Close Quarters

      by William Golding
      Published
      Dec 1987
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Pages
      288
      Buy on Amazon Book

      About This Book

      Lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the second novel in the Booker Prize-winning historical fiction Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.


      This tropical nowhere was the whole world - the whole       imaginable world.


      A decrepit warship is becalmed halfway to Australia, stilled in an ocean wilderness of heat and sea mists. In this surreal, fête-like atmosphere, a ball is held with a passing ship: the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them seaweed like green hair spreads omniously over the hull. Half-mad with fear, drink, love and opium, both vessel and passengers feel themselves going to pieces: and the very planks seem to twist themselves alive as the ship comes apart at the seams . . .

      'Fantastic ... Gems tumble off the pages ... A strong sense of drama ... Much of the pleasure of reading his work is his original imagery.' Annie Proulx


      'No living writer has represented the fragility of man's experience so marvellously as Golding.' AS Byatt

      'It is in Golding's magnificent, therapeutic, terrifying descriptions of seascapes that the deepest meanings can be found.' Kate Mosse


      'Stunning . . . As exciting as any thriller.' Sunday Times


      'A feat of imaginative reconstruction, as vivid as a dream.' Daily Mail


      'Tells an utterly absorbing tale, in language of immense force and subtlety.'       Financial Times

      To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book Two

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

      Subgenres

      Historical

      Buy This Book

      Amazon Paperback / Kindle Barnes & Noble Paperback / Nook Apple Books eBook Kobo eBook Audible Audiobook

      Formats & Editions

      Browse the different covers, formats, and publication history for this title.

      Paperback

      Paperback edition cover
      Trade Paperback
      First Edition Dec 1987 Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0374526362
      Buy
      Paperback edition cover
      Paperback
      Aug 2000 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571191452
      Buy
      Paperback edition cover
      Trade Paperback
      Nov 2013 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571298567
      Buy

      Hardcover

      Hardcover edition cover
      Hardcover
      Jan 1987 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571147798
      Buy
      Hardcover edition cover
      Hardcover
      Jun 1987 Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0374125104
      Buy

      eBook

      eBook edition cover
      eBook
      Nov 2013 Faber & Faber ISBN B00G8NYP36
      Buy
      eBook edition cover
      eBook
      Nov 2013 Faber and Faber (UK) ISBN 0571267432
      Buy

      Audio

      Audio edition cover
      Audio Cassette
      Jun 1990 ISIS Audio Books ISBN 1850897905
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Audio Cassette
      Dec 1996 Penguin Audio ISBN 0140864326
      Buy
      Audio edition cover
      Audible
      Apr 2022 Faber & Faber ISBN B09VQ5F2NZ
      Buy

      Large Print

      Large Print edition cover
      Hardcover
      Aug 1990 Chivers ISBN 0745172156
      Buy