Product Description

In the twenty-five years since its first publication, Waterland has established itself as one of the classics of the twentieth century. This anniversary edition, with a new introduction by the author, celebrates a novel that is a visionary tale of England’s Fen country, a sinuous meditation on the workings of history, and a family story startling in its detail and universal in its reach.

‘Graham Swift has mapped his Waterland like a new Wessex. He appropriates the Fens as Moby Dick did whaling or Wuthering Heights the moors. This is a beautiful, serious and intelligent novel, admirably ambitious and original’ Observer

'Perfectly controlled, superbly written. Waterland is original, compelling and narration of the highest order’ Guardian

‘Waterland is a formidably intelligent book, animated by an impressive, angry pity at what human creatures are capable of doing to one another in the name of love and need. The most powerful novel I have read for some time’ New York Review of Books

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16796 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author

Graham Swift was born in 1949 and is the author of eight acclaimed novels and a collection of short stories. With Waterland he won the Guardian Fiction Prize (1983), and with Last Orders the Booker Prize (1996). Both novels have since been made into films. Graham Swift's work has appeared in over thirty languages.

Customer Reviews

Graham Swift - Waterland
I've read so many great books of late that I'm constantly surprised that each one betters the next! After reading Richard Yates' superb Revolutionary Road, I knew that was a hard act to follow, but Waterland not only followed it well, but bettered it. It is certainly one of the best British novels that I've ever read, a masterpiece of original narration. It is, of course, the narrative that is the absolute crowning achievement of this: Swift tell's various stories here, all mappped over one another, in varying chapters and interlocking in various ways: we have the contemporary story of Tom Crick, a history teacher being forced into early retirement, who narrates the book in a series of "lectures" to his final class. Then we have the story of Crick's childhood in the Fens, his life with his family and friends and tales of growing up, which include murder, young love and suicide. Crick also narrates to his students the wider story of the Crick family, his ancestors and how they came to their place in the Fens. He sets all of this against the wider backdrop of events in history such as the French Revolution, and the the geographical history of the Fen landscape, and how humans have shaped it over various stages in time. Put like that, it sounds dry, but it really isn't at all. Every strand of it is fascinating, and very lively to read. Swift's style, in Crick's narration, is a masterpiece of wordsmithing, playful, intelligent, witty, pyrotechnic in a subtle, fun way.

It's a seriously excellent book, Waterland. An examination of one man's life and ancestral history, an exploration into the purposes and philosophies inherent in the studying and uses of history itself, and a thrilling mystery. There's more than one mysterious death, here. There are ghosts, incest, elemental raging in the form of floods and fires, kidnapping, and much tragedy. Crick is a fab protagonist, and it's sometimes surprising that the warmest sections of the book are the chapters of his interactions with his classroom of children. I can't recommend this multi-layered, superbly told story highly enough. It's a great literary achievement, and keeps its mysteries to the final page. Exciting, thrilling language, and muchly thought-provoking as to the concept of "history". Buy it soon. Buy it now.

Complex and thrilling
When all is said and done, Waterland is a cracking yarn of murder and bonking against a fenland backdrop. But what's special about this macabre literary thriller is the way the story is told. The narrator (a history teacher, Tom Crick, who is also the key protagonist) interleaves the central narrative (set in 1943) with scenes from his troubled present (1983), evocative detours into the eventful history of his family, and philosophical musings on the uses of history. The strange chapters in this final category are reminiscent of Tolstoy's essay-chapters in War and Peace; and, like Tolstoy, Swift somehow gets away with it. In fact, the sinuous structure of the novel only adds to the suspense: just as you think you're approaching a revelation, the narrator goes off on a new tangent. It works brilliantly, because the novel's central mystery (what exactly happened in 1943?) puts a voltage across the entire book, sucking you onwards towards the end.