{
    "id": 341357,
    "slug": "porpoise",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "The Porpoise",
    "subtitle": "Mark Haddon",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<P>\n'I really am so very, very sorry about this,' he says, in an oddly formal voice... They strike the side of a grain silo. They are travelling at seventy miles per hour.<br><br>A newborn baby is the sole survivor of a terrifying plane crash.<br><br>She is raised in wealthy isolation by an overprotective father. She knows nothing of the rumours about a beautiful young woman, hidden from the world.<br><br>When a suitor visits, he understands far more than he should. Forced to run for his life, he escapes aboard The Porpoise, an assassin on his tail...<br><br>So begins a wild adventure of a novel, damp with salt spray, blood and tears. A novel that leaps from the modern era to ancient times; a novel that soars, and sails, and burns long and bright; a novel that almost drowns in grief yet swims ashore; in which pirates rampage, a princess wins a wrestler's hand, and ghost women with lampreys' teeth drag a man to hell - and in which the members of a shattered family, adrift in a violent world, journey towards a place called home.</P>",
    "description": "Her favourite tales are those that conjure ancient worlds - of angry gods and heroic mortals, one of whom will some day come to her rescue.   Soon, she will forget where the page ends and her mind begins.   'A full-throttle blast of storytelling mastery' Max Porter",
    "additional_content": null,
    "bestseller_60": null,
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 336,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2019-05-09",
    "publication_date_latest": "2020-05-30",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9781529110708",
            "product_form": "BC"
        },
        {
            "isbn": "9781784742836",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
    "read_count": 0,
    "review_count": 0,
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    "reading_status_read_count": 0,
    "reading_status_reading_count": 0,
    "reading_status_want_to_read_count": 0,
    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
        "1": 0,
        "2": 0,
        "3": 0,
        "4": 0,
        "5": 0
    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:23:37+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-06T00:28:40+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 4175,
        "slug": "random-house-uk",
        "name": "Random House UK",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:08:37+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:10:08+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 206705,
            "slug": "mark-haddon-2",
            "key_names": "Haddon",
            "names_before_key": "Mark",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "300",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:23:37+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:23:37+00:00"
        }
    ],
    "tags": [],
    "campaigns": []
}