Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, Richard Collins' novel was described by the Whitbread panel as "a dark-hearted love story... a gripping tale that unfolds with immense narrative skill." 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.