“Like The Old Man and the Sea—if the old man were a middle-aged Maritimer, and the big fish were his own life, his pain, his addictions, his deep love—Some Hellish follows an irrepressible everyman, as he struggles to remake his life and come to terms with his vision of what is possible and important for him and those around him. An immersion in the rich, surprising, and vivid contemporary fishing culture, Some Hellish is some inventive, some compelling, some compassionate. It’s some book.” — Gary Barwin, author of Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted

“What Cormac McCarthy did for cowboys and horses, Nicholas Herring does for fishermen and boats in his novel Some Hellish. With a deep knowledge of the Island and a passion for the language of work, Herring’s voice is droll and philosophical, ribald and poetic. The age-old story of humans versus nature finds a fresh cadence as Herring trawls the seas for body and soul. There is a dark beauty within this story, and it will make the reader’s heart sing.” — Jury Citation, Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

“Brilliant and moving, Some Hellish tears a hole between the ordinary and the fantastic, the sacred and the profane. It is uncomfortable, sometimes painful, but also startling and beautiful to have things opened up like that, to see right through.” — Johanna Skibsrud, author of Island`