Ex-soldier and violent deadbeat John Usher returns to his boyhood home of Leeds to find things have changed. His community has been unravelled by gang culture, ethnic tensions and hopelessness. Unable to sleep, his only consolation is drinking late into the night and playing pool by himself. That is, until an encounter with a hard right activist leads him into a twisted relationship of deceit, cuckoldry and hatred.
"Anyone who wants to understand a northern underclass increasingly marginalised in these socially divisive times should read Shark. Gripping, wonderful, stimulating – and above all entertaining."
What the critics say
"Brown’s writing is an alloy of hard Yorkshire vernacular and genuine creativity that propels the narrative forward, exposing the state of the nation."
– Litro
"[Brown’s] achievement with Shark is to create a complete inner life for John that does not so much invite the reader’s condemnation as it does contemplation of how such a man comes to be moulded."
– Rum & Reviews
"Through his exploration of subjects such as the English Defence League, Brown establishes him as a novelist who is unafraid to write about both extremely contemporary and highly controversial topics."
– The Cadaverine
"Anyone who wants to understand a northern underclass increasingly marginalised in these socially divisive times should read Shark. Gripping, wonderful, stimulating – and above all entertaining."
– Anthony Clavane
"In Shark, Wes Brown writes with a kind of rhythmic Northern realism, catching the way we think, the way we talk, the way we act round here; he manages to make the North a marvellous place, a place where art can happen, where epic can feel comfortable..."
– Ian McMillan
"Here we have that rare artefact: a contemporary, regional, working class novel written with the ideas-based, language currency of the great transatlantic stylists."
– Danny Broderick"In Shark, Wes Brown writes with a kind of rhythmic Northern realism, catching the way we think, the way we talk, the way we act round here; he manages to make the North a marvellous place, a place where art can happen, where epic can feel comfortable..."
– Ian McMillan
"Here we have that rare artefact: a contemporary, regional, working class novel written with the ideas-based, language currency of the great transatlantic stylists."
What the critics say
"Brown’s writing is an alloy of hard Yorkshire vernacular and genuine creativity that propels the narrative forward, exposing the state of the nation."
– Litro
"[Brown’s] achievement with Shark is to create a complete inner life for John that does not so much invite the reader’s condemnation as it does contemplation of how such a man comes to be moulded."
– Rum & Reviews
"Through his exploration of subjects such as the English Defence League, Brown establishes him as a novelist who is unafraid to write about both extremely contemporary and highly controversial topics."
– The Cadaverine
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