Welsh writer Cynan Jones recently said, ‘I’m not sure fiction should provide the reader with a thorough picture of a person. Reality doesn’t.’ In this 95-page story we are given only scant details about the protagonist. He is adrift at sea in a kayak. He has his father’s ashes somewhere on board. He has left a pregnant lover on the beach. And after a few hours out, he is struck by lightning.

This sparse evocation of the man’s ensuing attempt at survival is utterly compelling. Particularly memorable is the man’s encounter with a sunfish the size of a table. Jones’s minimalist approach means that the reader is almost entirely responsible for their conception of the character trapped in the kayak; as a consequence, you become hell-bent on seeing him through to safety.

Reviewed by Angus Dalton