Archives par étiquette : Matt Riordan

WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD de Matt Riordan

Amid the gangland wars of Prohibition, one fisherman’s long-shot play to secure his family’s future brings disaster to everyone he loves. Based partly on family lore, Matt Riordan’s follow-up to The North Line is for readers of Jeannette Wall’s Hang the Moon and S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed.

WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD
by Matt Riordan
Hyperion Avenue, April 2025
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)

Eld should’ve known better. Hell, he did know better. But watching lesser men hit big paydays—men who didn’t fight in Europe—grew unbearable. So, when the opportunity arises, he reaches for a little something extra for his family, and even more for himself. With Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to rumrunner was supposed to be temporary. It seemed the perfect plan. Even Maggie, Eld’s normally sensible wife, is on board.

Things don’t go to plan. Amid the region’s players battle to capture the biggest piece of a shrinking pie, Eld’s tiny family operation is caught in the crossfire. One bitterly cold night packing whiskey across Lake Huron costs Eld dearly, and his family even more.

Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered: Eld to Canada on a doomed quest, Maggie and her daughter forced into finding sanctuary in a faith more cult than religion. When they finally reunite, they may not even recognize each other as the same people who crossed their fingers and threw the dice for a shot at a better life.

Matt Riordan grew up in Michigan but spent his early twenties working on commercial fishing boats in Alaska. After college Matt drifted from commercial fishing through a variety of jobs before landing in law school. He became a litigator in New York City, where he practiced for twenty years. He now lives with his family in Australia.

THE NORTH LINE de Matt Riordan

In Matt Riordan’s debut novel, a college student in need of quick money finds work on an Alaskan fishing boat in the unforgiving Bering Sea.

THE NORTH LINE
by Matt Riordan
Hyperion Avenue, April 2024
(via DeFiore and Company)

Even at the ragged edge of civilization, some lines should not be crossed.

Everyone believes Adam to be something he’s not. Sometimes that’s because he’s told them a story. Sometimes he’s told himself one. But when Adam joins an Alaskan fishing crew that’s promising money he desperately needs, the dangerous work and harsh lifestyle strip away all fabrications and force a dark-hearted exploration of who he really is.

On the unforgiving Bering Sea, Adam finds the adventure and authenticity of a fisherman’s life revelatory. The labor required to seize bounty from the ocean invigorates him, and the often crude comradery accompanies a welcome, hard-earned wisdom. But when a strike threatens the entire season and violence stalks the waves, Adam is thrust into a struggle for survival at the edge of the world, where evolutionary and social forces collide for outcomes beyond anyone’s control.

In his riveting debut novel, Matt Riordan pairs personal experiences with a master storyteller’s eye in a piercing examination of the quest for identity in the face of tempests within and without.

THE NORTH LINE is a ruggedly erudite story that combines the best of the individualism of Jack London with the introspective ruminations of Raymond Carver . . . not to be missed.” —S.A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed

«  THE NORTH LINE is one of those rare books that you feel as much as read. The world and its details are so real, so intimate, and so lived-in and that I had to check my fingertips for fish scales once I finished reading. » —Craig Davidson, author of Rust and Bone

Riordan is summoning demons in this grimy wilderness saga that might hit entirely too close to home for those who know. Magnificent. » —Laird Barron, author of The Wind Began to Howl

Matt Riordan grew up in Michigan but spent his early twenties working on commercial fishing boats in Alaska. After college, Matt drifted from commercial fishing through a variety of jobs before landing in law school. He then became a litigator in New York City, where he practiced for twenty years. He now lives with his family in Australia.