" The North Water , Ian McGuire''s savage new novel about a 19th-century Arctic whaling expedition, is a great white shark of a book--swift, terrifying, relentless and unstoppable. [.] Mr. McGuire is such a natural storyteller--and recounts his tale here with such authority and verve--that ''The North Water'' swiftly immerses the reader in a fully imagined world. [.] Mr. McGuire nimbly folds all these melodramatic developments into his story as it hurtles toward its conclusion. He has written an allusion-filled novel that still manages to feel original, a violent tale of struggle and survival in a cinematically beautiful landscape.
" -- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Riveting and darkly brilliant. The North Water feels like the result of an encounter between Joseph Conrad and Cormac McCarthy in some run-down port as they offer each other a long, sour nod of recognition." -- Colm Toibin, The New York Times Book Review "[An] audacious work of historical suspense fiction.It''s the poetic precision of McGuire''s harsh vision of the past that makes his novel such a standout.absolutely transporting." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR''s Fresh Air "Mesmerizing . Told in grisly language that calls to mind Cormac McCarthy, The North Water begs such ontological questions as: What profit it a man who saves his skin but misplaces his soul?" -- Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "Bold and frightening, The North Water offers many satisfactions and little comfort. Readers of Cormac McCarthy know that beautiful writing and bloody murder go together as well now as they did in Homer, and Ian McGuire proves it.
" -- Jonathan Arac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Carries echoes of Melville and Lord Jim . engrossing . unsparing and utterly convincing." -- Highbrow Magazine "A dark, brilliant yarn.An amazing journey." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "McGuire delivers.moments of fine prose that recall Seamus Heaney''s harsh music, as when an iceberg is described as ''an albinistic butte unmoored from the desert floor.''" -- Kirkus Reviews "Raw and compulsively readable .
think The Revenant for the Arctic Circle." -- The Millions "It''s one of those ones that you want to wake up at 5.30 in the morning so you can read some more." -- James Daunt, founder of Daunt Books and managing director of Waterstones " The North Water is a conspiracy thriller stuffed into the skin of a blood-and-guts whaling yarn. The novel is a stunning achievement, by turns great fun and shocking, thrilling and provocative. Behold: one of the finest books of the year." -- Independent "McGuire delivers one bravura set-piece after another. The North Water has, in places, a Conrad-Melville undercurrent, but for the most part it is Dickens''s influence that is most keenly felt.
This is a stunning novel, one that snares the reader from the outset and keeps the tightest grip until its bitter end." -- Financial Times "McGuire''s prose is fresh and vivid and his novel as a whole is atmospheric and intellectually fecund. Its surface might be awash with blood; but beneath it flows a current of dark and transporting beauty." --Spectator "As a storyteller, McGuire has a sure and unwavering touch, and he has engineered a superbly compelling suspense narrative.As a stylist, too, McGuire is never less than assured. He has produced a fine addition to the maritime canon, but one that revivifies it with a thoroughly modern acuity of style. He has established himself, too, as a writer of exceptional craft and confidence." --Irish Times "Compared with this savage tale of Arctic survival, Leonardo DiCaprio''s bear-wrestling ordeal in The Revenant looks like something out of A.
A. Milne.McGuire expertly arranges all this mayhem, and the narrative is horrifically gripping. The North Water is smoothly readable despite the horrors it depicts, and that''s testament to the quality of McGuire''s prose. Such fine writing might have been lifted from the pages of Herman Melville''s Moby-Dick ." -- Independent on Sunday "It is a vivid read, full of twists, turns, period detail and strong characters. The setting is original too, and the description of harpooning and flensing of a whale have been forever etched on my memory. This melodramatic blood and urine-stained tale is an enjoyable contrast to most literary fiction.
" -- The Times "Uncompromising in its language, relentless in the unfolding of its blood-soaked narrative, this is not a novel for the squeamish, but it has exceptional power and energy." -- Sunday Times "Terrific, seamed with pitch black humour and possessed of a momentum that''s kept up to the final, unexpected but resoundingly satisfying scene.inspired." -- Daily Mail "The strength of The North Water lies in its well-researched detail and persuasive descriptions of the cold, violence, crueltylishers Weekly, starred review "McGuire delivers.moments of fine prose that recall Seamus Heaney''s harsh music, as when an iceberg is described as ''an albinistic butte unmoored from the desert floor.''" -- Kirkus Reviews "Raw and compulsively readable . think The Revenant for the Arctic Circle." -- The Millions "It''s one of those ones that you want to wake up at 5.
30 in the morning so you can read some more." -- James Daunt, founder of Daunt Books and managing director of Waterstones " The North Water is a conspiracy thriller stuffed into the skin of a blood-and-guts whaling yarn. The novel is a stunning achievement, by turns great fun and shocking, thrilling and provocative. Behold: one of the finest books of the year." -- Independent "McGuire delivers one bravura set-piece after another. The North Water has, in places, a Conrad-Melville undercurrent, but for the most part it is Dickens''s influence that is most keenly felt.This is a stunning novel, one that snares the reader from the outset and keeps the tightest grip until its bitter end." -- Financial Times "McGuire''s prose is fresh and vivid and his novel as a whole is atmospheric and intellectually fecund.
Its surface might be awash with blood; but beneath it flows a current of dark and transporting beauty." --Spectator "As a storyteller, McGuire has a sure and unwavering touch, and he has engineered a superbly compelling suspense narrative.As a stylist, too, McGuire is never less than assured. He has produced a fine addition to the maritime canon, but one that revivifies it with a thoroughly modern acuity of style. He has established himself, too, as a writer of exceptional craft and confidence." --Irish Times "Compared with this savage tale of Arctic survival, Leonardo DiCaprio''s bear-wrestling ordeal in The Revenant looks like something out of A. A. Milne.
McGuire expertly arranges all this mayhem, and the narrative is horrifically gripping. The North Water is smoothly readable despite the horrors it depicts, and that''s testament to the quality of McGuire''s prose. Such fine writing might have been lifted from the pages of Herman Melville''s Moby-Dick ." -- Independent on Sunday "It is a vivid read, full of twists, turns, period detail and strong characters. The setting is original too, and the description of harpooning and flensing of a whale have been forever etched on my memory. This melodramatic blood and urine-stained tale is an enjoyable contrast to most literary fiction." -- The Times "Uncompromising in its language, relentless in the unfolding of its blood-soaked narrative, this is not a novel for the squeamish, but it has exceptional power and energy." -- Sunday Times "Terrific, seamed with pitch black humour and possessed of a momentum that''s kept up to the final, unexpected but resoundingly satisfying scene.
inspired." -- Daily Mail "The strength of The North Water lies in its well-researched detail and persuasive descriptions of the cold, violence, crueltyart it is Dickens''s influence that is most keenly felt.This is a stunning novel, one that snares the reader from the outset and keeps the tightest glishers Weekly, starred review "McGuire delivers.moments of fine prose that recall Seamus Heaney''s harsh music, as when an iceberg is described as ''an albinistic butte unmoored from the desert floor.''" -- Kirkus Reviews "Raw and compulsively readable . think The Revenant for the Arctic Circle." -- The Millions "It''s one of those ones that you want to wake up at 5.30 in the morning so you can read some more.
" -- James Daunt, founder of Daunt Books and managing director of Waterstones " The North Water is a conspiracy thriller stuffed into the skin of a blood-and-guts whaling yarn. The novel is a stunning achievement, by turns great fun and shocking, thrilling and provocative. Behold: one of the finest books of the year." -- Indepen.