Kem Nunn is a third-generation Californian whose previous novels include The Dogs of Winter, Pomona Queen, Unassigned Territory, and Tapping the Source, which was the basis of the film Point Break. Tijuana Straits won the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His latest novel, Chance, was recently made into a major TV series starring Hugh Laurie and Gretchen Mol. He lives in Southern California, where he also writes screenplays for television and film including John from Cincinnati, Deadwood and Sons of Anarchy.

Terrific... And what a story it is: deftly, beautifully plotted... Nunn has written something truly powerful; to say this book is about surfing is to say The Sun Also Rises is about bullfighting. He has made the sport a metaphor for life lived at its edges, at its most intense. This is a fine, strong novel; if there's justice in the world, it will give Nunn the reputation he deserves