Francis Spufford · 2016 · sea

Francis Spufford's 2016 novel, a pastiche of eighteenth-century fiction. In November 1746 a charming, secretive young Englishman, Mr Smith, steps off the brig Henrietta into the muddy little town of New York, seven thousand souls on the tip of Manhattan, carrying a bill for a thousand pounds and refusing to say why. Over sixty days of intrigue, courtship, duels and a near-hanging, the city tries to work out who he is. The journey is the Atlantic crossing that brings him; the adventure is all ashore.

1. 1
   London

   Mr Smith boards the brig Henrietta with a bill for a thousand pounds and a secret he will not share.

2. 2
   New York

   After weeks at sea he passes Sandy Hook and the Narrows and lands at New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan, throwing its merchants into suspicion and uproar.