Cormac James
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Cormac James was born in Cork, Ireland. A graduate of the UEA Creative Writing MA, he has published short fiction in Columbia, Phoenix Irish Short Stories, and The Dublin Review. His first novel, TRACK AND FIELD, was published in 2000. He lives in Montpellier, France, with his wife and son.
‘THE SURFACING is an extraordinary novel, combining a powerful narrative with a considered and poetic use of language in a way that is not often seen these days. Reading the book, I recalled the dramatic natural landscape of Jack London and the wild untamed seas of William Golding. Cormac James's writing is ambitious enough to be compared with either.’ — John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
‘Cormac James’s writing is very assured, with a harsh poetic edge. His evocations of barren landscape, sea weather, pack ice and frozen skies are powerful and compelling.’ — Rose Tremain
‘The great topic of Cormac James's THE SURFACING is the reach of human possibility. The prose is calm, vivid, hypnotic and acutely piercing. James is attuned to the psychological moment: this is a book about fatherhood and all its attendant terrors. It's a remarkable achievement…. James recognises the surfacing of love in the face of solitude. A stylish novel, full of music and quiet control. This is a writer that I'd like to see hurry – I’m looking forward already to the next book.’ — Colum McCann
TRONDHEIM
Literary Fiction, Bellevue Literary Press, February 2024
A son's collapse pulls his two mothers together and apart in a novel that probes the limits of love, hope, and forgiveness
In Norway, thousands of miles from home, a student drops dead on the street. A passerby revives his heart, but he remains in a coma from which he may never wake. His mothers rush across the continent to his bedside where they endure the strain of helpless waiting. As the tense hospital vigil continues day after day and they vacillate between extremes of hope, fear, and psychic pain, their troubled relationship is pushed to the edge.
A profound exploration of a family in crisis, TRONDHEIM portrays the way each woman copes with the looming tragedy and the possibility of healing in the wake of a life-altering emergency.
THE SURFACING
Literary Fiction, 384 pages
Sandstone Press, September 2014
Morgan is second-in-command on a ship searching for Franklin’s lost expedition in the 1850s – when he realises there is a pregnant stowaway on board, he is the father and the Impetus becomes trapped in the ice.