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Description
By the winner of the Betty Trask Prize – an atmospheric and powerfully menacing story about family, secrets and violence
'Groundwater masterfully and subtly begins to re-enchant all that we have reduced' Amber Husain
John and Liz have left the city behind to move to a remote house on the shores of the lake. Though the house is barely unpacked, Liz's sister, with her children and her husband, have come to visit for the August bank holiday weekend.
Over the course of a hot, slow weekend, tensions simmer; things go unsaid – between the two couples, between the two sisters. Their time together is punctured by visits from Jim, the solitary local warden for the area; and a group of students camping nearby draw closer and closer, finally infiltrating the house – and bringing their own tensions and hierarchies with them.
As the weekend draws to a close, the landscape reveals a violence that has long lain hidden – and the summer builds to its harrowing climax.
Taut and menacing, full of disquiet and tenderness, Groundwater is about the gulfs that lies between us and those we love – and the miraculous ways our deepest desires and fears manifest.
Product details
| Published | 17 Jul 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 304 |
| ISBN | 9781526678041 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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A ruthless and minutely observed reckoning with the stories, beliefs, and places we make to shelter from fear of death
AMBER HUSAIN
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So dreamlike and yet so tense – a heady combination beautifully balanced by McMullan. This is a novel that gets right under your skin
ELLA FREARS
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Groundwater subtly plucks at the invisible strings that connect one person to another - the familial, the romantic, those of friendship, of dependency. It explores the gulf that can form between ourselves and the ones we love, how we can make sense of it, how we can cross it.
VANESSA ONWUEMEZI
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Praise for The Last Good Man: A Scarlet Letter for our times
MARGARET ATWOOD
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Recalling the smack-in-the-face technique of early Ian McEwan … Viciously captivating: frightening to be around, impossible to put aside
GUARDIAN
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A visceral and disquieting debut novel about the power of words
NEW STATESMAN

















