"The Nessman" is a biographical novel that traces the story of Colin, a young Hebridean boy, from childhood and adolescence on the isle of Lewis to his life as a student on the mainland. The main theme of the book is death--death of a father, of an identity, of a sense of self and of a language. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Alasdair Campbell's novel is often hilariously funny, brilliantly observed and written with an astonishing ear for dialogue and eye for character. Colin's self-knowledge as he spirals towards destruction is unsparing and unsentimental and results in an extraordinary and moving portrayal of both an individual and a culture. This is the first novel in English on the people of Ness and it is one of the first novels in which a Gaelic writer has, with utter confidence, made English his own language too.