NEW RELEASE
The Oyster Catcher - Jo Thomas (2013)
Married life hasn't exactly got off to the best of starts for Fiona Clutterbuck. She's been ditched minutes after the signing of the registry, crashed a camper van and had a run-in with police. Now in Dooleybridge, County Galway, Fiona should be enjoying her honeymoon, but instead she wants to escape the whole fiasco and this small, backwater town might in fact be just what she needs, the chance to start a new life - as an assistant to a local oyster farmer, Sean Thornton. There's just the slight problem that Fiona is scared of water and oh she doesn't even like oysters! The backdrop of a small Irish community and the world of oyster farming really sets Jo Thomas' novel apart. It's not your average chick lit set-up and it's great to see something a bit different. The story however lacks some depth and the characters come across as a bit caricatured - especially Fiona's nemesis, Nancy. To a large degree it seems that the novel would be perfect for the screen. Its feel-good spirit and warmth can't be denied and the festival finale is an example of good old-fashioned community. (JC)
Jo Thomas has won the 2014 Romantic Novelists' Association's Joan Hessayon Award for new writers for her debut novel The Oyster Catcher. The summary says: "Fiona Clutterbuck thinks she's got it all when she finally becomes Mrs Brian Goodchild, marrying weeks before her 30th birthday. But when he abandons her at the altar, she does the only thing she knows how to do, run away. Crashing the honeymoon camper van, she finds herself in the middle of nowhere on the west coast of Ireland with only the clothes she's stood up in. So, if she's not Mrs Brian Goodchild anymore, who is she? One thing she does know, she can't go home. What Fi wants is to hide away, and where better? She takes a job on an oyster farm despite being terrified of water and her new boss, the wild and unpredictable Sean Thornton and his oyster broker partner Nancy Dubois. There, she battles oyster pirates, pearl queens and circling sharks before finally coming out of her shell and finding love amongst the oyster beds of Galway Bay." In awarding the prize at the RNA summer party in London on May 22, the judges said: "The sense of place in this charming tale is superb, and the reader really feels as though they are there in that godforsaken village with the constant rain. A truly wonderful read!"