Recommended by Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Air Mail, USA Today, and the New York Times.
“A memorable lost-at-sea narrative…well-documented, page-turning…a no-brainer for fans of The Perfect Storm and similar books. A riveting man-vs.-nature story and compelling tribute to those who perished.” —(starred) Kirkus Reviews
“Fairbanks deftly handles the story, with an eye for detail and page-turning prose. An evocative, well-researched, and compelling account, this highly recommended book will stay with readers past the last page.” —(starred) Library Journal
Somewhere between The Perfect Storm and Manchester by the Sea, journalist Amanda M. Fairbanks chronicles the dramatic hours of the Wind Blown’s four-man crew, who found themselves in a life-and-death struggle with hurricane-force winds when a Nor’easter unexpectedly struck, as well as the wrenching aftermath of the tragedy, both for the survivors and the town.
It’s a study of the bygone era of Montauk, “a drinking town with a fishing problem,” and of what happens when a working class community collides with affluence. The Hamptons, of course, are now a playground for the extremely wealthy, but it wasn’t always so.
Taking place in a very specific time and in the very specific place, on the East End of Long Island in the 1980s, this riveting story also tackles the universal themes of family, life, and death.
“Journalist Fairbanks debuts with a deeply reported and moving account of how a tragedy has affected a Long Island fishing community. The result is a memorable portrait of loss.”
As seen on CBS Saturday Morning!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Amanda M. Fairbanks
Amanda M. Fairbanks is a journalist and author of The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the East Hampton Star. A graduate of Smith College and a former Teach for America corps member, she has two master’s degrees from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The California native lives with her family in Sag Harbor where she is at work on her second nonfiction book.
Represented by Laura Dail.