Author(s): James Russell

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"Taking in the mesmerising vision before me, I raised my arms towards the ocean like an idiot king acknowledging his subjects. My own surfing realm. Every single wave that broke on this reef was mine.”

Twenty-six-year-old Jimmy Brennan’s life has taken a turn for the worse, and he’s desperate to numb the pain. When his mother dies and his girlfriend betrays him, it’s the final straw and he seeks escape; he boards a plane bound for Bali.

But Jimmy’s demons chase him. Sickened by the tourists and the crowded surf spots, he travels north up the archipelago, driven by a desire for solitude and possessed by a reckless, self-destructive urge.

When he’s offered the opportunity to visit and surf the forbidden island of North Sentinel, home of a forgotten tribe who have violently rejected outside contact for centuries, Jimmy takes it.

He finds his perfect wave, but it’s a decision that will have deadly consequences.

I read this book in a day, it was impossible to put down! NZ author James Russell has written a debut adult fiction and it is gripping from the first sentence. Jimmy has hit a low point in his life, his girlfriend has betrayed him with his best friend, his mother dies and he is still suffering trauma from growing up with an abusive father. His only respite is found on the ocean when he immerses himself in another world - surfing - but crowds of people drive him away and he longs for a place that he can surf solo, away from everything. He books a trip to Bali, but is disgusted by the flocks of tourists, over-surfed beaches, and filth of the cities. When he hires a local seaman - Firoz - to take him out to surf locations further afield, Firoz confides in him that he knows an amazing surfing spot but it is at North Sentinel Island which is forbidden, as the tribe there gets no contact from the outside world and will kill outsiders. With sheer adrenaline, Jimmy discovers waves he has only ever dreamed of, but a near death encounter leaves him stranded there. I am not a surfer but loved the descriptions of the waves and the ocean, James writes beautifully. A thrilling read. Jemma