Mick Little used to build ships on the Clyde, bringing home a wage for his wife Cathy and their two sons. Thirty years later the yards are long closed and Mick, burdened by an unspoken guilt over Cathy's death, abandons Glasgow.
In London - in the sweating kitchens of an airport hotel, in a crowded coach station, sleeping by the river - a once proud man might very easily be able to disappear from the world.
FROM THE REVIEWS
“There are rare novels that embed themselves in your sensibility so profoundly you can imagine conversations arising between characters that never occurred on the page… Raisin's creation of Mick is a work of grace: a human being rendered by a triumph of ventriloquism and empathy.”
– Alan Warner, The Guardian
“Beautiful... Waterline's great achievement is in giving a convincing and moving voice to an element of society that is rarely so emotively heard.”
– Dazed & Confused
“Brilliant, heartbreaking, harrowing… Confirms Ross Raisin as an exciting talent, a unique, gifted voice.”
– Financial Times
“Truly absorbing, mesmerises from its very first pages. A spectacular follow-up to Raisin’s prize-winning debut.”
– Time Out
“A poignant, shocking, wry, shaming, yet profoundly generous, and cunningly crafted classic... If you're looking for the definitive novel for our times, this is the strongest candidate I've read for ages.”
– Scotsman
“It sparkles. A wholly convincing portrait of a widower’s collapse… Makes one admire both Raisin’s determination to forge his own path, and the skill with which he has done so… What impresses is the all-encompassing nature of his imaginative empathy, and the way in which he makes the reader complicit in his character's fate.”
– Sunday Times
“Waterline announces Ross Raisin as a profound thinker as well as a distinctive voice.”
– Esquire
“Watch your back, Peter Carey.”
– GQ
“A masterly study of bereavement.”
– Irish Examiner
“A terrifying account of how easy it is to disappear.”
– Daily Record
“Ross Raisin is a novelist of terrific ability and great verve…Waterline is stunning in its maturity and descriptive voice… One of our most extraordinary writers.”
– Philip Hensher, Sunday Telegraph
“Ross Raisin himself deserves such full-throated acclamation… It adds up to a portrait of grief that's as haunting as it is elegant – and yet it somehow manages to crackle with energy at the same time. This is a hard balance to strike, but Raisin has done it twice in a row.”
– Globe and Mail, Canada
“Raisin's portrait of this wry sexagenarian is persuasive and compassionate… There can be no doubt that he is a writer of outstanding talent and it will be fascinating to see what he comes up with next.”
– Independent on Sunday
www.rossraisin.com