Summerwater, Sarah Moss
Summerwater, Sarah Moss
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Summerwater
A Novel

Author: Sarah Moss

Narrator: Morven Christie

Unabridged: 4 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/12/2021


Synopsis

'[Morven] Christie's narration keeps listeners rapt while maintaining rhythm with the action, be it a runner's stride, lovers' desire, a child's watchfulness. The result is a memorable marriage of remarkable fiction and outstanding performance." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

The acclaimed author of Ghost Wall offers a new, devastating, masterful novel of subtle menace

They rarely speak to each other, but they take notice—watching from the safety of their cabins, peering into the half-lit drizzle of a Scottish summer day, making judgments from what little they know of their temporary neighbors. On the longest day of the year, the hours pass nearly imperceptibly as twelve people go from being strangers to bystanders to allies, their attention forced into action as tragedy sneaks into their lives.

At daylight, a mother races up the mountain, fleeing into her precious dose of solitude. A retired man studies her return as he reminisces about the park’s better days. A young woman wonders about his politics as she sees him head for a drive with his wife, and tries to find a moment away from her attentive boyfriend. A teenage boy escapes the scrutiny of his family, braving the dark waters of the loch in a kayak. This cascade of perspective shows each wrapped up in personal concerns, unknown to each other, as they begin to notice one particular family that doesn’t seem to belong. Tensions rise, until nightfall brings an irrevocable turn.

From Sarah Moss, the acclaimed author of Ghost Wall—a “riveting” (Alison Hagy, The New York Times Book Review) “sharp tale of suspense” (Margaret Tablot, The New Yorker), Summerwater is a searing exploration of our capacity for kinship and cruelty, and a gorgeous evocation of the natural world that bears eternal witness.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

“Sharp, searching, thoroughly imagined, Summerwater is utterly of the moment, placing its anxious human dots against a vast, indifferent landscape; with its wit and verve and beautiful organization, it throws much contemporary writing into the shade!”—Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror & the Light

About Sarah Moss

Sarah Moss is the author of the novels The Fell, Summerwater, and Ghost Wall, the memoir My Good Bright Wolf, and many other books. Her work has been listed among the best books of the year in The Guardian, The Times (London), Elle, and the Financial Times and selected for The New York Times Book Review’s Editors’ Choice. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she was educated at the University of Oxford and now teaches at University College Dublin.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nilufer on April 14, 2021

Such a well written cabin fever story is taken place in claustrophobic, rainy, depressing atmosphere with detailed, living, breathing, pure realistic, layered characterization and their random, smart, quirky, dark narrations. Of course it’s well deserved five starred reading. When you read something......more

Goodreads review by Meike on March 31, 2020

Sarah Moss is a master of evocative writing: The story moves slowly and many passages are very descriptive (which usually bothers me), but the text is still intense and intriguing. For her short novel "Summerwater", she chose a peculiar structure: Over the course of one day, we meet 12 people in dif......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on April 13, 2020

Location-Scotland, a holiday lodge park in The Trossachs. It’s raining like there’s no tomorrow, some cabin fever setting in as the holiday makers are trapped indoors though a few decide to ‘make the best of it’. The story is told from the perspectives of the occupants of some of the lodges, all in......more

Goodreads review by Lark on April 11, 2021

This is brave, confident writing. I read to the end and then I started back at the beginning and read it to the end again. And then, because it's a library book that was due, and because I wanted to be able to read it whenever I wanted to--maybe, even, to read it right away again--I bought it. And n......more

Goodreads review by Doug on February 05, 2021

4.5, rounded up. This is my first Moss novel, but it won't be my last - in fact, as soon as I finished, I immediately started reading Ghost Wall. In an odd way, this reminded me of Olive Kitteridge and its sequel - the way a major character in one story becomes a cameo in another, how the community......more


Quotes

"Sharp, searching, thoroughly imagined, Summerwater is utterly of the moment, placing its anxious human dots against a vast indifferent landscape; with its wit and verve and beautiful organisation it throws much contemporary writing into the shade!"
- Hilary Mantel


Awards

  • NPR Best Book of the Year
  • The Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year
  • The Guardian (UK) Best Books of the Year