A university lecturer in Cornwall will finally see his new novel published after a series of setbacks.
Award-winning author Rob Magnuson Smith's eagerly-anticipated novel "Seaweed Rising" now has a release date.
After being delayed due to the pandemic and the administration of its publisher, Sandstone Press, the novel has now been picked up by Vertebrate Publishing and will be released in hardback on November 16.
Mr Smith, a senior lecturer in English and creative writing at the University of Exeter on the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, has a reputation for his compelling storytelling.
His previous novels and short stories have won numerous awards, and his work has been widely anthologised and even audio recorded by actor Jeremy Irons.
"Seaweed Rising" faced several setbacks in its journey to publication.
After the onset of the pandemic, its original publisher Sandstone Press faced numerous challenges.
Despite having a confirmed publication date in August, the company went into administration just a week before the book was due to be released.
Luckily, Vertebrate Publishing stepped in to save the day, rescuing Sandstone's award-winning books and prestigious authors.
After a delay of three months, "Seaweed Rising" is finally about to see the light of day.
The novel brings readers into a strange, submerged world where sentient beings await our final mistakes, revealing an amateur seaweed collector's paranoia of algae taking over the human race.
In this genre-bending existential drama, Smith explores the depths of human society, from a Cornish fishing village to the Spanish coast, and up to the blinding glacial landscape of the Arctic.
Ben Smith, author of Doggerland, said: "Wonderfully unsettling: you'll never look at seaweed the same way again."
Fellow author Richard Francis echoed this praise, describing it as "A gripping thriller, an eco-novel, a study of paranoia."
American author Akhil Sharma found it "Truly weird and wonderful, sad and eerie", while Nicholas Royle called it "At once a moving love story and an ecological reverie of Ballardian intensity."
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