Waterland

The Booker Shortlisted Modern Classic from the author of Last Orders, Mothering Sunday and Here We Are

One summer morning in 1943, lock-keeper Henry Crick discovers the drowned body of a sixteen-year-old boy. Nearly forty years later, his son Tom, a history teacher, is compelled by a bizarre marital crisis and the provocation of one of his students to abandon the formal teaching of history—and instead, tell stories...

Waterland is a modern classic, offering:

• A vision of England through its mysterious, amphibious Fen country
• A sinuous meditation on the workings of time
• A tale of two families, startling in its twists and turns, yet universal in its reach

Compulsively readable, this novel is:

• Of resonant depth and encyclopaedic richness
• A mix of human and natural history
• An exploration of the tragic forces that propel us both forwards and back

It is also a book about beer, eels, the French Revolution, the end of the world, windmills, will-o’-the-wisps, murder, love, education, curiosity, and—supremely—the malign and merciful element of water.

‘A quite brilliant novel’ – Daily Telegraph
‘Inspired’ – New York Times