Winner of the 1989 National Book Award

A classic tale of a man, a boat, and a storm, Spartina is the lyrical and compassionate

story of Dick Pierce, a commercial fisherman along the shores of Rhode Island's

Narragansett Bay. A kind, sensitive, family man, he is also prone to irascible outbursts

against the people he must work for, now that he can no longer make his living from the

sea.

Pierce's one great passion, a fifty-foot fishing boat called Spartina , lies unfinished in

his back yard.Determined to get the funds he needs to buy her engine, he finds himself

taking a foolish, dangerous risk.But his real test comes when he must weather a storm at

sea in order to keep his dream alive.Moving and poetic, Spartina is a masterly story of

one man's ongoing struggle to find his place in the world.