352 pp. August 18, 2026, Viking. Fiction.
This review first appeared in The Sunday Long Read, August 30, 2026.
Jamie Palmer, a lifeguard and avid surfer mostly living a hermetic lifestyle, is drawn into a complex terrorism plot after his best friend, a Stanford professor he calls Boneyard, dies. Palmer takes custody of Luca, Boneyard’s son, and becomes involved with Boneyard’s former student, Chelsea. Chelsea confides in Palmer about the ‘ghost in the data’ that she and Boneyard found while doing research. As they all try to work out what it means, it becomes apparent that it’s all tied to recent domestic nuclear terrorism—and that something else is about to happen.
This is the best fiction I’ve read in a while. Hawk’s style is concise, even a little spare, but somehow packed full of depth of feeling. Palmer struggles with PTSD from his work, and his terrible ruminations are interspersed throughout the novel, adding both to its emotional heft and its tension. The plot is extremely well-written and plausible; Hawk’s clearly done his research on the possibility of homegrown nuclear terrorism in the US. And Hawk brings his love of ocean and surfing to the story, making that aspect of Palmer completely authentic.
A perfect debut, highly recommended.
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Find out more about Nearshore from the publisher’s site here.
Harare Review of Books 
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