A gorgeously sordid story of love and murder on the high seas, read the novel that catapulted Moshfegh into literary stardom

'Wonderful' Guardian
'One of America's most exciting - and most provocative - young novelists' Financial Times
'You're in safe, if sticky hands' The Times

Salem, Massachusetts, 1851: McGlue wakes up in prison, too drunk to be sure of how he got there, or even his own name. They say he killed a man, and that man may have been his best friend. That man may have been his lover. Now, McGlue wants one thing and one thing only: a drink.

Because when he is sober he remembers, and McGlue wants to forget. As he is visited by people demanding answers - the authorities, his well-meaning lawyer and his weeping mother - McGlue struggles to bury the memories that haunt him, of a violent childhood, swashbuckling adventures, and the only man who ever loved him.