Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times and a National Magazine Award finalist, Michael Capuzzo has been a feature writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Miami Herald. His stories have also appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Reader's Digest. He lives with his wife and two children in rural New Jersey. [Edit review] [Delete review]

Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.

During the summer before the United States entered World War I, when ocean swimming was just becoming popular and luxurious Jersey Shore resorts were thriving as a chic playland for an opulent yet still innocent era's new leisure class, Americans were abruptly introduced to the terror of sharks. In July 1916 a lone Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the New Jersey shoreline. There, near the towns of Beach Haven and Spring Lake-and, incredibly, a farming community eleven miles inland-the most ferocious and unpredictable of predators began a deadly rampage: the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history.

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“A remarkable read . . . a flash photo of the moment when our fascination with sharks transformed from awe into mortal dread.”
–Entertainment Weekly

“The most perfect beach book ever. Better than Jaws–an amazing story, terrific writing, and the Gilded Age setting is fascinating. I loved it.”
–Linda Marotta, Shakespeare & Company, New York City

“Popular history meets popular science in this thrilling shark story. As in Seabiscuit, the author interweaves social history with a suspenseful story told from different characters’ points of view, including that most fascinating character of all: the shark itself.”
–Arsen Kashkashian, Boulder Book Store, Boulder, Colorado

“This riveting book skillfully combines historical fact with shark science and lore. A first-rate thriller that’s all the more spine-tingling because it really... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]

The Last Man in the Water

The smell of the sea pulled him east. The Atlantic spread before him like a pool of diamonds, liquefied, tossing gently in gleaming tips and shards of changeable, fading bronze light. The sun climbed down toward dusk behind mountains of clouds swollen with moisture. The young man couldn't wait to get in the water.

The sandy beach stretched for miles. Behind him were seagrass-covered dunes, bleached fragments of shipwrecks, the shadows of Victorian turrets facing the sea. The warm wind carried the bark of a retriever, the faint perfume, so close, of the young women watching from the sands in their hourglass Gibson Girl dresses, their hair swept up high like the clouds captured in silk bow-tie ribbons. He was a handsome young man with slicked-back dark hair, a strong profile, a man who drew notice. He moved with the slight elbows-out jauntiness of a rebel, for ocean swimming was a new and godless pursuit, a worship of the cult of the... [More...] [Edit review] [Delete review]