Richard Collins' debut novel is a dreamlike meditation on land and sea and the illusory nature of love. Two friends work together on a smallholding: one allows the other to read the novel he is writing, The Land as Viewed from the Sea. As the novel unfolds, fiction begins to intrude upon reality, redefining the friends' relationship, and threatening to change their lives forever.

"Fresh, surprising and ambitious... Richard Collins' dark-hearted love story is a gripping tale that unfolds with immense narrative skill."
The Whitbread First Novel Award Judges

"This is really a novel of images, the stormy lonely sea confronting the settled land of the past, a past only comforting insofar as it is set aside. The descriptions of life at sea and on land are rich and convincing"
Independent on Sunday

Richard Collins has been a farm labourer, gardener and estate worker. He lives with his family in west Wales and teaches at the Institute of Rural Sciences in Llanbadarn.