The Lost Boys of Montauk: The True Story of the Wind Blown, Four Men Who Vanished at Sea, and the Survivors They Left Behind

(Hardback)

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An immersive account of a tragedy at sea whose repercussions haunt its survivors to this day, lauded by New York Times bestselling author Ron Suskind as an honest and touching book, and a hell of a story.

In March of 1984, the commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left Montauk Harbor on what should have been a routine offshore voyage. Its captain, a married father of three young boys, was the boats owner and leader of the four-man crew, which included two locals and the blue-blooded son of a well-to-do summer family. After a week at sea, the weather suddenly turned, and the foursome collided with a noreaster. They soon found themselves in the fight of their lives. Tragically, it was a fight they lost. Neither the boat nor the bodies of the men were ever recovered.

The fate of the Wind Blownthe second-worst nautical disaster suffered by a Montauk-based fishing vessel in over a hundred yearshas become interwoven with the local folklore of the East Ends year-round population. Back then, on the easternmost tip of Long Island, before Wall Street and hedge fund money stormed into town, commercial fishing was the areas economic lifeblood.

Amanda M. Fairbanks examines the profound shift of Montauk from a working-class villagea drinking town with a fishing problemto a playground for the ultra-wealthy, seeking out the reasons that an event more than three decades old remains so startlingly vivid in peoples minds. She explores the ways in which deep, lasting grief can alter peoples memories. And she shines a light on the powerful and sometimes painful dynamics between fathers and sons, as well as the secrets that can haunt families from beyond the grave.

The story itself is a universal tale of family and brotherhood; its about what happens when the dreams and ambitions of affluent and working-class families collide. Captivating and powerful, The Lost Boys of Montauk explores one of the most important questions we face as humans: how do memories of the dead inform the lives of those left behind

Reviews

A memorable lost-at-sea narrative focusing on a Montauk-based commercial fishing boat... well-documented, page-turning ...a no-brainer for fans ofThe Perfect Stormand similar books. Arivetingman-vs.-nature story and compelling tribute to those who perished.
Kirkus(starred review)

Deeply reported and moving...A memorable portrait of loss.
Publishers Weekly

Readers fascinated by stories of shipwreck such as Sebastian JungersThe Perfect Stormmay be similarly intrigued by this sad tale.
Booklist

Fairbanks deftly handles the story, with an eye for detail and page-turning prose. An evocative, well-researched, and compelling account, this highly recommended book will stay with readers past the last page.
Library Journal(starred review)

A sweeping, and often devastating, portrait of a community on the brink of transformation, and of how grief can ricochet across generations.
Vanity Fair

[A] must-read.
Town & Country

In 1984, commercial fishing boat Wind Blown left Montauk Harbor in a routine voyage with four souls aboard, ran into a nor'easter, and never returned. This thoughtful account explores the tragedy at sea and the repercussions for those left behind.
USA Today

A remarkable feat of reportingThe Lost Boys of Montaukis a poignant tale of how an incident nearly 40 years old can still reverberate in a town much changed by money but not by memory.
Air Mail

"A relentlessly reported page-turner about the collision of man and nature on the ocean and the collateral damage back on land.
Tom Clavin,New York Timesbestselling author ofDodge CityandTombstone

This extensive and stunningly reported true story of a tragic shipwreck off Montauk is tinged with that rebel late-hippie-era vibe of the late seventies and early eighties. It's about family secrets, romances cut short, the fishing life, and the evolving history of the East End of Long Island, now known as The Hamptons. Its an honest and touching book, and a hell of a story.
Ron Suskind, bestselling author ofLife, Animated

The Lost Boys of Montaukis riveting. Combining gorgeous prose and exhaustive research, Fairbanks paints a fascinating portrait of a shipwreck and its aftermath. It's a complex tale of class divides in the Hamptons, of grief, passion, memory, and youth. Over the course of the book, we come to know and care deeply for the young men who were lost at sea and for those who live on to tell their story. A must-read.
J. Courtney Sullivan, bestselling author ofFriends and Strangers

Not since Peter Matthiessens Mens Lives has there been such an insightful depiction of the struggles, joys, and dangers of being a fisherman out of Montauk. The Lost Boys of Montauk is beautifully written and impeccably researched. Youll never again hear the words lost at sea and not think of this book.
Steven Gaines,bestselling author ofPhilistines at the Hedgerow

Four commercial fishermen perished in a late-winter storm off the coast of Long Island in 1984. Through obsessively detailed reporting, clear, powerful writing, and the unstoppable storytelling of a thriller, Amanda Fairbanks has made this one event stand for a whole world.The Lost Boys of Montaukis an unforgettable portrait of fishermens culture, of the peculiarities of a place inhabited by ordinary people and the very rich, and of the ways in which a tragedy can exert a force on peoples lives down through the decades.
Nicholas Lemann, author ofTransaction Man

The Lost Boys of Montaukdescribes the permanent shadow cast across the lives of the women, men, and children affected by the sinking of theWind Blownin a winter storm forty years ago, with all four young men aboard lost at sea. Amanda Fairbanks collects the histories of the men and their families and describes the atmosphere of a fishing town at the eastern end of Long Island. Her book is a kind of collective testimony, a chorus of voices that would not otherwise have been heard.
Alec Wilkinson, author ofThe Riverkeeper

This grippingly reported book is about social class and boundaries, about family, about the web of pain grief, drugs, alcoholism, divorce, loneliness that spins out of devastating loss. From generation to generation, from family to family, Fairbanks documents traumas insidious effect on an entire East End community.
Susan Scarf Merrell, author ofShirley

An arresting, awesome story vivid and sensory, and as hypnotic as the tides of the sea. Fairbanks is an in-depth reporter who weaves wonderfully a vastly researched tale into a cinematic page-turner.
Mira Ptacin, author ofThe In-Betweens

The Lost Boys of Montaukgives something of an idea of what Steinbeck and Melville might have produced had they written narrative nonfiction together. In telling the tragic tale of four men whose lives were cut short, Fairbanks crafts a gripping portrait not only of the characters, but of a time and place now trapped in the amber of the not-too-distant past.
Graydon Carter, Editor ofAir Mail

Amanda Fairbanks' story of theWind Blownand the four men who died at sea, their lives, and the disaster's long effects is a brilliantly reported, heartrending epic that captures the beautiful, complicatedand in this case, tragicthreads in a community that I have long called home and that my family's newspaper has covered for generations. This book belongs in every South Fork collection.
David Rattray, Editor,The East Hampton Star
[R]iveting...powerful and poignant ...This is a book eloquent with the sorrow and the beauty of being on this earth, and no less expressive of the love. After all, the author writes, 'grieving is the last way we get to love someone.'
The Wall Street Journal
InThe Lost Boys of Montauk,Sag Harbor-based writer Amanda M. Fairbanks, through skillful reporting and masterful writing, captures in haunting detail the lives of the four young crewmen and the foregone world they came to represent.
Newsday

Author Bio

Amanda M. Fairbanks is a journalist who has worked in the editorial department of TheNew York Times, as a reporter forHuffPost, and at TheEast Hampton Star, where she wrote investigative stories, features, and profiles. Her writing has also appeared in TheBoston Globe,Newsweek, TheAtlantic, and The San Francisco Chronicle. A graduate of Smith College and a former Teach for America corps member, she has two masters degrees from Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism, and currently lives with her family in Sag Harbor.