"A gritty, evocative account of commercial fishermen at work in a hard profession."

­­Peter Matthiessen, author of In The Spirit of Crazy Horse and The Snow Leopard

"His achievement has been to write a paean for a way of life."­­Smithsonian magazine.

Those who put to sea for a dangerous and chancy living could ask for no better chronicler than William McCloskey. McCloskey has sailed with fishermen and women in all the seas of the world, from Indonesian village fishermen, to a Japanese squid boat in the North Pacific, to cod fishermen on the Grand Banks and gill netters in Alaska, working alongside them as he went. Fishing is the last of the hunting occupations, a hard but fiercely independent life. In Their Father's Work, McCloskey's vivid prose puts you right on deck, working through pain, discomfort, and exhaustion as the decks roll, the spray flies, and the nets are hauled. His love of the boats, the fishermen, and the sea shines through this moving, fascinating tribute to a way of life.

"If I've delivered nothing but a lament for those of a dying culture, we'll be the poorer for it."­­William McCloskey.