NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NOMINEE A stunning novel about a deadly rivalry in Key West from the acclaimed author ofCloudbursts. McGuane has constructed a novel with the impetus of a thriller and the heartbroken humor that is his distinct contribution to American prose.

Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in Americas utter South. And Skeltons plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the profession by dint of infallible instincts and a reputation for homicide.

Thomas McGuane makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity. He is an important as well as a brilliant novelist. The New York Times Book Review