“[A]n irresistible portrait of commercial fishermen fighting for survival in the early 1990s Alaska. […] The novel’s colorful dialogue and relentless pacing evoke the uncompromising headwinds in [the main character’s] path. This is a triumph of gritty realism. “
—Publishers Weekly (Starred)
“The best literary seafood chowder I’ve tasted in years…. [Riordan] lived what he writes, in a way that googling nor reading could ever inform… The antecedence of Darwin and Melville, London, Conrad and Hemingway [are] all caught up in Riordan’s vast seine-net.”
—Charles Wooley, The Australian
“[I]n an atmosphere worthy of a Jack London rock’n’roll, Matt Riordan has written a ruthless coming-of-age novel that leaves you breathless.”
—Rolling Stone [France]
“Riordan is a superb storyteller, and The North Line is an all-engrossing, never-dull depiction of Alaska’s ‘wild west’ and those drawn to it. Sentence by sentence, Riordan’s dazzling language will transport readers into a world both challenging and packed with beauty and possibility.”
—Anchorage Daily News
“Riordan writes about both labor and the natural world with an equally keen eye, bringing out the inner torment of a complex character coming to terms with his place in the world.”
—CrimeReads, a Best Debut pick
“The North Line is a ruggedly erudite story that combines the best of the individualism of Jack London with the introspective ruminations of Raymond Carver . . . not to be missed.”
—S.A. Cosby New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed
“A frightening story of tough men pushed to the brink. The novel is captivating, occasionally funny, and startling. I couldn’t put it down.”
—David Sedaris
“This coming-of- age novel relates the story of a young man among old sea wolves. It is said that man is a wolf to man. In the Bering Sea, man is like a shark.”
—Ouest France
“The North Line is one of those rare books that you feel as much as read. The world and its details are so real, so intimate, and so lived-in and that I had to check my fingertips for fish scales once I finished reading.”
—Craig Davidson, author of Rust and Bone
“Riordan is summoning demons in this grimy wilderness saga that might hit entirely too close to home for those who know. Magnificent.”
—Laird Barron, author of The Wind Began to Howl
“A rough, virile, and exciting novel.”
—Tribune de Genève
“A novel that smells of the sea, of mustiness and fuel oil…. A dirty, dark, immersive novel.”
—Voile Magazine
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