Doggerland by Ben Smith – review

A boy investigates his father’s death in this skilful debut novel set on a vast coastal wind farm

For a landmass subsumed by the North Sea some 8,000 years ago, Doggerland, the area that once connected Great Britain to mainland Europe, is enjoying a resurgence of interest. Last month saw the publication of Julia Blackburn’s well-received Time Song: Searching for Doggerland, and hot on its heels comes Doggerland, Ben Smith’s debut novel.

The attraction is obvious – after all, what better geography to explore in our Brexit world? – and Smith creates a landscape of brutality with great skill. From this lost terrain, he also wrings a complex human drama, exploring humanity’s place in the natural world, as well as the systems that attempt to place order on our lives.