Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Picador (2021), Edition: Main Market, 208 pages
Description
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR in the UK: The Guardian , The Times "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 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.… (more)
Media reviews
Everyone is hiding something and the rain won’t stop in the Ghost Wall writer’s nightmarish tale of a day spent holidaying by a loch...Moss’s ability to conjure up the fleeting and sometimes agonised tenderness of family life is unmatched, and here, as in The Tidal Zone in particular, she
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sketches so lightly the all-but-invisible conflicts and compromises that can make cohabitation both a joy and a living hell..... Observing the way we subtly edit ourselves and one another – the limits that puts on us, as well as the strengths it creates – is Moss’s metier....A great part of a novelist’s skill lies in the breadth of their sympathies and their ability to enter into the lives of people unlike themselves. Moss does this so naturally and comprehensively that at times her simple, pellucid prose and perfectly judged free indirect speech feel almost like documentary or nonfiction – there is an artfulness to her writing so accomplished as to conceal itself. In Summerwater, as in Ghost Wall, Moss’s politics are crystal clear; but it’s the messy complexities and frailties we all harbour about which she has the most to say. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
Summerwater is set in a remote Scottish holiday camp where several travelers are trying to make the best of things despite the incessant rain. Most looked forward to spending a week off the grid without cellular service, until being cooped up in damp cabins with little to do but watch your
The novel unfolds over a single day, with each chapter one holidaymaker’s interior monologue. A woman goes for an early morning run, enjoying the solitude. Despite the weather, an elderly couple boards a ferry to visit one of their favorite spots. A teenage boy braves the elements in his kayak. Their narratives are both a commentary on the activity they’re engaged in, and observations about the people they see along the way. They speculate on the lives of their fellow travelers, never making direct personal contact. Haven’t we all done this?
And yet there’s an ominous undertone, a sense that all of this is leading somewhere. Sarah Moss has a gift for building suspense through spare prose. Small details dropped in each narrative build a composite picture of life at the holiday camp. Some of those details turn out to be important; some are red herrings. I enjoyed getting to know the couples and families stuck on a holiday gone bad, all the while wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. And when it did, the pace went from zero to sixty in a flash, and delivered a knockout punch that continued to haunt my thoughts well after I closed the book.
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neighbors’ comings and goings.The novel unfolds over a single day, with each chapter one holidaymaker’s interior monologue. A woman goes for an early morning run, enjoying the solitude. Despite the weather, an elderly couple boards a ferry to visit one of their favorite spots. A teenage boy braves the elements in his kayak. Their narratives are both a commentary on the activity they’re engaged in, and observations about the people they see along the way. They speculate on the lives of their fellow travelers, never making direct personal contact. Haven’t we all done this?
And yet there’s an ominous undertone, a sense that all of this is leading somewhere. Sarah Moss has a gift for building suspense through spare prose. Small details dropped in each narrative build a composite picture of life at the holiday camp. Some of those details turn out to be important; some are red herrings. I enjoyed getting to know the couples and families stuck on a holiday gone bad, all the while wondering when the other shoe was going to drop. And when it did, the pace went from zero to sixty in a flash, and delivered a knockout punch that continued to haunt my thoughts well after I closed the book.
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LibraryThing member kidzdoc
The events in this short novel take place in a long cul-de-sac in a chalet park adjacent to a loch in the Trossachs of Scotland on the longest day of the year, a day notable for unrelenting heavy rain. The focus is on several middle class English inhabitants of five of the cabins at its end, a
The book's chapters consist of several characters' internal dialogue, as they worry about their family members and their own lives, which is even more magnified in their closed settings. Overriding everything is a heavy sense of foreboding in the reader, and as tensions build within each cabin it seems obvious that something bad will happen at the end of this day — but to whom?
Summerwater is a well crafted novel that was compelling and filled with twists and turns that kept my attention from the first page to the last. Once again, Sarah Moss' superb ability to portray the lives and thoughts of everyday people makes for a very interesting book, and one that I would highly recommend, especially for anyone who is new to her writing.
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retired elderly couple in one, and the others by people on holiday: a young couple nearing marriage, and three families of four, two with two young children, the other with two miserable teenagers whose out of touch parents cannot fathom why their kids are so unhappy. The sixth cabin holds a group of Eastern Europeans, who insist on hosting all night parties with extremely loud music that keep their neighbors awake and add both to the others' dislike of the foreigners, as well as the tension on a day when escape from one's own family members is difficult at best.The book's chapters consist of several characters' internal dialogue, as they worry about their family members and their own lives, which is even more magnified in their closed settings. Overriding everything is a heavy sense of foreboding in the reader, and as tensions build within each cabin it seems obvious that something bad will happen at the end of this day — but to whom?
Summerwater is a well crafted novel that was compelling and filled with twists and turns that kept my attention from the first page to the last. Once again, Sarah Moss' superb ability to portray the lives and thoughts of everyday people makes for a very interesting book, and one that I would highly recommend, especially for anyone who is new to her writing.
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LibraryThing member Cariola
The author had an interesting concept for this collection of interrelated stories. It focuses on the people spending a holiday in a group of vacation rentals on a loch in northern Scotland. Each chapter focuses on a different resident (and some 1-2 page chapters on local residents including a deer,
About halfway through, I started to wish that I was done with 'Summerwater,' not because it was bad but because I just wasn't in the mood for something this dreary, dismal and depressing. The writing is very good, the characters all well fleshed out (although some were stereotypes), and their interactions provided a window onto today's society. Maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me.
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a fox, and other critters). Unfortunately, they are plagued by typical Scottish weather: rain, rain and more rain. The vacationers include an elderly couple, a retired doctor and his ailing wife; a family with three young children (the eldest daughter has a nasty streak); another with two typically surly teenagers who would rather be at home and are dismayed by the lack of cell phone reception; a newly married couple (perhaps the only ones happy to be confined indoors); a couple with two young boys, the mother of whom is addicted to running, even in the rain); and a group of Eastern European immigrants (it's never clear exactly where they are from), all adults except for one obviously lonely little girl. The latter party a lot, to the dismay of some residents due to the noise and to others because they aren't invited to join in.About halfway through, I started to wish that I was done with 'Summerwater,' not because it was bad but because I just wasn't in the mood for something this dreary, dismal and depressing. The writing is very good, the characters all well fleshed out (although some were stereotypes), and their interactions provided a window onto today's society. Maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me.
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LibraryThing member nicx27
I must confess this is my first Sarah Moss book and I wish that wasn't the case as I absolutely loved Summerwater. It's a very quick read, partly because it's only 200 pages (with lots packed into them) but also because I was very quickly embroiled in each of the characters' lives.
Each section of
Sarah Moss has a writing style that I thought very appealing and very observational. In telling the story from each character's viewpoint we see events quite differently each time. What I particularly liked was the way she writes much of it as an inner monologue and I completely identified with the way ever changing thoughts flitted through their minds portraying their very humanness.
I really enjoyed the setting too. It's inspired. There's something about the idea of the cabin park, being placed close to strangers in structures that give the impression of being a bit flimsy, that gives a sense of vulnerability and I felt like there was something lying beneath the surface throughout, a kind of foreboding.
I honestly could have carried on reading about these people but Moss had to wind it up at some point and it wasn't how I was expecting. This is a superb read which felt so original. The wry humour had me smiling from the off and the beautiful writing had me marvelling at its depths.
Each section of
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the book focuses on one of a set of characters who are holidaying at a cabin park by a loch in Scotland. It sounds idyllic but it's constantly raining and there's nothing to do. The whole book is told over the course of one single day.Sarah Moss has a writing style that I thought very appealing and very observational. In telling the story from each character's viewpoint we see events quite differently each time. What I particularly liked was the way she writes much of it as an inner monologue and I completely identified with the way ever changing thoughts flitted through their minds portraying their very humanness.
I really enjoyed the setting too. It's inspired. There's something about the idea of the cabin park, being placed close to strangers in structures that give the impression of being a bit flimsy, that gives a sense of vulnerability and I felt like there was something lying beneath the surface throughout, a kind of foreboding.
I honestly could have carried on reading about these people but Moss had to wind it up at some point and it wasn't how I was expecting. This is a superb read which felt so original. The wry humour had me smiling from the off and the beautiful writing had me marvelling at its depths.
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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
A rainy August at a loch-side holiday park in Scotland. Stuck in the small cabins, the vacationers watch each other and the rain. Each chapter of this novel follows a different person stuck waiting for the rain to stop, from a girl and her brother annoyed by another girl interrupting their play, to
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the teenager so bored with being inside that he goes kayaking and discovers that he may have overestimated his abilities, to the young mother who jogs early in the morning to escape all the demands on her time. Moss is a wonderful writer, able to create complex characters in just a few paragraphs, and the picture she draws of this vacation site is one that appears stagnant, but that is teeming with life. This is a gorgeous and not entirely benign novel that is maybe just a touch shorter than it needed to be. Show Less
LibraryThing member streamsong
We’re told at the very beginning of the book that there will be deaths before the day is over.
And then author [[Sarah Moss]] details the activities for the inhabitants of a vacation camp on the shores of a Scottish loch, following them all for one specific day.
Each of the visitors, even the
And yet when the end comes, when the thing happens that we’ve been told from the very beginning, it’s unexpected with a shocking, unforgettable final line.
Beautiful character building and world building – if a single day in one small tourist camp can be called a world.
Still, although I was not as taken by it as by her earlier novel [The Wall, I’ll be looking forward to more by Sarah Moss.
And then author [[Sarah Moss]] details the activities for the inhabitants of a vacation camp on the shores of a Scottish loch, following them all for one specific day.
Each of the visitors, even the
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children, have weaknesses, foibles or anger that seem dangerous and make you wonder – is this the one? Is this the story? And the tension builds.And yet when the end comes, when the thing happens that we’ve been told from the very beginning, it’s unexpected with a shocking, unforgettable final line.
Beautiful character building and world building – if a single day in one small tourist camp can be called a world.
Still, although I was not as taken by it as by her earlier novel [The Wall, I’ll be looking forward to more by Sarah Moss.
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LibraryThing member JosephCamilleri
Summerwater, the latest novel(la) by Sarah Moss, is set in a cabin park in the Trossachs, where several disparate families are on holiday. Although its ‘action’ is spread over one long (rainy) summer’s day, the novel does not follow a traditional narrative and does not really have a plot –
Each of its short chapters is written from the point of view of one of the residents of the different lodges. These chapters are, in turn, separated by brief vignettes (barely a page in length), in which the focus shifts to the natural world. Half-way through the novel, we start revisiting each of the cabins, through the thoughts of a different resident, giving the book a vaguely palindromic feel. The only characters in the story whose viewpoint we do not get to share are, tellingly, the holidaymakers who are seen as outsiders by the rest – a Ukrainian group with a penchant for noisy, boozy parties and an Iraqi war veteran who is staying in a tent in the woods.
Summerwater shares some of its themes with Sarah Moss’s previous novel Ghost Wall. There is an underlying violence, which is only hinted at in the earlier parts of the book and comes to the surface at the end (although not exactly in the way one might expect). There are references to sexual/gender politics and feminist themes, as well as to the issues of racism and xenophobia. Finally, there’s a Hardyesque sense of “deep time” with the eternal cycles of nature serving as the backdrop to the transient tragedies of man. Surprisingly, the novel’s stream of consciousness approach leaves for a healthy streak of humour which balances the novel’s darker aspects.
I must admit that, on the whole, I enjoyed Summerwater less than Ghost Wall. Despite the author’s attempts to differentiate between the characters, the narrative voices seemed too similar, making it difficult to really empathize with the characters. Yet, there’s still much to admire in the book and, at novella length, it never outstays its welcome.
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at least, not in the conventional sense. This notwithstanding, it is very tautly structured, and one of its striking characteristics is its formal elegance.Each of its short chapters is written from the point of view of one of the residents of the different lodges. These chapters are, in turn, separated by brief vignettes (barely a page in length), in which the focus shifts to the natural world. Half-way through the novel, we start revisiting each of the cabins, through the thoughts of a different resident, giving the book a vaguely palindromic feel. The only characters in the story whose viewpoint we do not get to share are, tellingly, the holidaymakers who are seen as outsiders by the rest – a Ukrainian group with a penchant for noisy, boozy parties and an Iraqi war veteran who is staying in a tent in the woods.
Summerwater shares some of its themes with Sarah Moss’s previous novel Ghost Wall. There is an underlying violence, which is only hinted at in the earlier parts of the book and comes to the surface at the end (although not exactly in the way one might expect). There are references to sexual/gender politics and feminist themes, as well as to the issues of racism and xenophobia. Finally, there’s a Hardyesque sense of “deep time” with the eternal cycles of nature serving as the backdrop to the transient tragedies of man. Surprisingly, the novel’s stream of consciousness approach leaves for a healthy streak of humour which balances the novel’s darker aspects.
I must admit that, on the whole, I enjoyed Summerwater less than Ghost Wall. Despite the author’s attempts to differentiate between the characters, the narrative voices seemed too similar, making it difficult to really empathize with the characters. Yet, there’s still much to admire in the book and, at novella length, it never outstays its welcome.
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LibraryThing member pgchuis
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.
This was a fairly quick read, set on an apocalyptically rainy day at a holiday park on a loch in Scotland. Different chapters were from the perspectives of a wide variety of characters staying in the park's lodges. The writing was
That apart, highly recommended.
This was a fairly quick read, set on an apocalyptically rainy day at a holiday park on a loch in Scotland. Different chapters were from the perspectives of a wide variety of characters staying in the park's lodges. The writing was
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beautiful and the characters extremely well-observed. There was very little plot (until the ending, which was fairly dramatic), but characters recurred on the periphery of other chapters, which linked the different sections. There were also short chapters which I think were about the nature of the loch - I am ashamed to say that I found the first few like very long very difficult to understand poems and after that I skipped them.That apart, highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member ozzer
Feeling depressed by social distancing? Why not commiserate with a group of vacationers at a remote Scottish holiday park on a rainy day? Everyone is either isolated indoors where people understandably can get on each other’s nerves or getting wet and dreary out of doors. The only access to the
Moss’s characters are the clear strength of her novel. She treats them with sympathy, humor, and subtlety. They include young families, an elderly couple, newlyweds, rebellious teenagers, and rowdy immigrants. With the exception of the latter, Moss captures rich internal monologues from each about such diverse personal experiences as exercise (running and kayaking), age-related memory loss, sex, teenage rebellion, parenting, childhood worldview, ageing, class snobbery, prejudice, and politics.
The arc of the novel covers one dark rainy day where most of the adults are relegated to observing their neighbors at a distance. The mood is dark and claustrophobic. One also sees multiple opportunities for disaster along the way, including an early morning run in the dark by a lone woman, a kayaking experience on the lough in a wild windstorm, one child daring another to swing over water on a rope, a mysterious observer in the woods, an ex-soldier living alone in a tent, and a loud late-night party. Of course, disaster finally does arrive, but not until the final chapter. One senses, however, that Moss is less interested in writing a thriller than in observing human nature.
Suspense builds in each chapter yet dissipates due to the picaresque nature of the narrative. Each chapter is an impeccable standalone, only loosely related to the others. This gives the overall novel an unfortunate baggy feel. Notwithstanding this minor flaw, SUMMERWATER is indeed an engaging and thoughtful reading experience.
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wider world is through the Wi-Fi at the local pub. Moss expertly builds suspense in this setting by using multiple close third-person narratives interspersed with short nature vignettes. This approach artfully explores the unseen worlds of her characters along with that of the local wildlife.Moss’s characters are the clear strength of her novel. She treats them with sympathy, humor, and subtlety. They include young families, an elderly couple, newlyweds, rebellious teenagers, and rowdy immigrants. With the exception of the latter, Moss captures rich internal monologues from each about such diverse personal experiences as exercise (running and kayaking), age-related memory loss, sex, teenage rebellion, parenting, childhood worldview, ageing, class snobbery, prejudice, and politics.
The arc of the novel covers one dark rainy day where most of the adults are relegated to observing their neighbors at a distance. The mood is dark and claustrophobic. One also sees multiple opportunities for disaster along the way, including an early morning run in the dark by a lone woman, a kayaking experience on the lough in a wild windstorm, one child daring another to swing over water on a rope, a mysterious observer in the woods, an ex-soldier living alone in a tent, and a loud late-night party. Of course, disaster finally does arrive, but not until the final chapter. One senses, however, that Moss is less interested in writing a thriller than in observing human nature.
Suspense builds in each chapter yet dissipates due to the picaresque nature of the narrative. Each chapter is an impeccable standalone, only loosely related to the others. This gives the overall novel an unfortunate baggy feel. Notwithstanding this minor flaw, SUMMERWATER is indeed an engaging and thoughtful reading experience.
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LibraryThing member modioperandi
A beautiful cinematic series of vignettes centered around vacationers and locals in Scotland. The loch looms heavy, as does rain, and character sketches. Especially riveting is the opening of a woman running in the pouring rain and we the reader are inside her head. It's great. It's moody and funny
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and lyrical. Sarah Moss has in Summer-Water isolated the inner thoughts of everyday people from various backgrounds to build up a thoughtful novel-of-vignettes approach that I really love. The pacing is perfect with a build up of tension, like atmospheric pressure, building with each story and each section fits, dovetails, and collides with the next in the most natural way possible. By the end you will be going back in for a reread to see how Sarah Moss has done what she has with this masterful short novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member SamSattler
Sarah Moss’s Summerwater is one of those novels that has drawn praise from professional critics on both the U.S. and the U.K. All that I knew about it going in was that it was short (201 numbered pages) and that it was supposed to have some kind of tragic/impactful/heartbreaking ending that kind
And that makes this a tricky novel to review. One slip and the freight train is derailed before it even reaches the neighborhood.
Summerwater is the story of a group of strangers who happen to be staying in a Scottish holiday camp during the same week, a week during which it seems mostly to be raining so often that the various families are largely confined to their cabins where they surreptitiously spy on each other through slatted windows. With one exception, everyone pretty much seems to be from either Scotland or England. The outsiders are from Eastern Europe - the others think - and depending on whom you ask that family is characterized as Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, or Romanian. Everyone is so certain that they know the family’s origin that no one makes an effort to verify any of the assumptions. They don’t speak to the foreigners at all, but for that matter, they barely speak to each other either.
In what could pass for a collection of interconnected short stories as much as anything else, Moss introduces the families to the readers one at a time. Each “story,” of course has the same setting and sometimes the characters do have the kind of interaction that requires a little more from them than staring at, and wondering about, each other. The characters run the gamut from the elderly to toddlers, and their lives from contentment to despair. Some of what is going on behind closed doors is laugh-out-loud funny, and some of it will bring a tear to your eye. Moss truly is a good writer, and the structure works well. For the most part, her adult characters are witty and observant, if more than a little standoffish, such as one wife who is desperate for a little alone-time because all the rain. She thinks:
“…setting aside the violent and deranged, getting married is like voting in that whatever you choose the outcome will be at best mildly unsatisfactory four years down the line.”
My favorite chapter of them all is “Zanzibar,” a snippet during which Moss places the reader inside the minds of Josh and Millie, who are on the verge of marriage, during the sex act itself. The contrast between what each is thinking, as opposed to what each believes the other must be thinking and experiencing is hysterical at times. Let’s just say it is a very good thing that neither of them is a mindreader.
But that freight train is still out there somewhere.
Bottom Line: Summerwater is as enjoyable as it is memorable, but for entirely different reasons. However, the ending left me a bit confused because of something that is only hinted at about one of the characters. I’m still not sure exactly why what happens at the end actually happens; perhaps, that’s what Moss was going for, perhaps not. And, too, maybe I just missed something. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.
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of sneaks up on the reader. I can verify that the page-count is accurate, but the ending is more like getting blindsided by a freight train than having something surprise you by slowly sneaking up on you. And that makes this a tricky novel to review. One slip and the freight train is derailed before it even reaches the neighborhood.
Summerwater is the story of a group of strangers who happen to be staying in a Scottish holiday camp during the same week, a week during which it seems mostly to be raining so often that the various families are largely confined to their cabins where they surreptitiously spy on each other through slatted windows. With one exception, everyone pretty much seems to be from either Scotland or England. The outsiders are from Eastern Europe - the others think - and depending on whom you ask that family is characterized as Bulgarian, Polish, Russian, or Romanian. Everyone is so certain that they know the family’s origin that no one makes an effort to verify any of the assumptions. They don’t speak to the foreigners at all, but for that matter, they barely speak to each other either.
In what could pass for a collection of interconnected short stories as much as anything else, Moss introduces the families to the readers one at a time. Each “story,” of course has the same setting and sometimes the characters do have the kind of interaction that requires a little more from them than staring at, and wondering about, each other. The characters run the gamut from the elderly to toddlers, and their lives from contentment to despair. Some of what is going on behind closed doors is laugh-out-loud funny, and some of it will bring a tear to your eye. Moss truly is a good writer, and the structure works well. For the most part, her adult characters are witty and observant, if more than a little standoffish, such as one wife who is desperate for a little alone-time because all the rain. She thinks:
“…setting aside the violent and deranged, getting married is like voting in that whatever you choose the outcome will be at best mildly unsatisfactory four years down the line.”
My favorite chapter of them all is “Zanzibar,” a snippet during which Moss places the reader inside the minds of Josh and Millie, who are on the verge of marriage, during the sex act itself. The contrast between what each is thinking, as opposed to what each believes the other must be thinking and experiencing is hysterical at times. Let’s just say it is a very good thing that neither of them is a mindreader.
But that freight train is still out there somewhere.
Bottom Line: Summerwater is as enjoyable as it is memorable, but for entirely different reasons. However, the ending left me a bit confused because of something that is only hinted at about one of the characters. I’m still not sure exactly why what happens at the end actually happens; perhaps, that’s what Moss was going for, perhaps not. And, too, maybe I just missed something. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.
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LibraryThing member arewenotben
Excellent again from Sarah Moss; a tight, beautifully written story set in a wet Scottish holiday camp. Structured almost as a collection of short stories with each chapter being written from a different character's perspective in a loosely stream of consciousness style, ranging from young children
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to pensioners. Summerwater seems to cram a large amount into it's short page count, it also has some of the best writing on the act of running since Murakami. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
The setting for this short novel is a group of summer cabins around a loch in remote Scotland. In a series of vignettes we are introduces to the various inhabitants of the cabins, their lives and concerns of the moment, beginning in the predawn hours with Justine, a young wife and mother going for
At first this seems a quiet book, in which nothing much is happening. But with each episode, a sense of dread and forboding is being built. Although some reviews have described the book as being a "parade of inner lives" or "family life," in my view it is actually a psychological thriller.
Recommended.
3 1/2 stars
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her sacrosanct run--the only time she gets to herself. The novel proceeds episodically throughout the day, the cold Scottish rain ever present, as in each section we meet a new set of characters. There are several families with young children, a family with teenagers, an elderly couple, a young engaged couple, as well as a group of "foreigners" (Romanians) that several of the other vacationers feel are too loud. The novel ends with the events culminating in the Romanian cabin after midnight.At first this seems a quiet book, in which nothing much is happening. But with each episode, a sense of dread and forboding is being built. Although some reviews have described the book as being a "parade of inner lives" or "family life," in my view it is actually a psychological thriller.
Recommended.
3 1/2 stars
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LibraryThing member proustitute
Eerie, lyrical, poignant, unflinching: Sarah Moss’s Summerwater is a series of vignettes about families and couples on holiday in the Trossachs, where the rain pours down unrelentingly. We encounter many people whose paths all cross—a couple trying to orgasm together; an elderly couple with a
All of these brief inner lives are told in almost Woolfian streams of consciousness that are poetic and painful to read for their revelations about the depravity of human nature; perhaps more striking here is how Moss intersperses the longer, human vignettes with brief scenes showing human encroachment on the natural world, with the looming threat of climate change and a bleak, post-Brexit view of interpersonal relations.
As in Ghost Wall, Moss shows herself a master at shocking climaxes; again, I was reminded of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in many ways, but Moss makes her shockers all her own.
Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.
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growing distance between them due to the wife’s disability; a young girl who enjoys a swing that dangerously exists between loch and rocks, and who actually throws rocks at another girl for not belonging; a sixteen-year-old boy who doesn’t seem to realize while kayaking that he’s had a precarious run-in with death.All of these brief inner lives are told in almost Woolfian streams of consciousness that are poetic and painful to read for their revelations about the depravity of human nature; perhaps more striking here is how Moss intersperses the longer, human vignettes with brief scenes showing human encroachment on the natural world, with the looming threat of climate change and a bleak, post-Brexit view of interpersonal relations.
As in Ghost Wall, Moss shows herself a master at shocking climaxes; again, I was reminded of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in many ways, but Moss makes her shockers all her own.
Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member Helenliz
Goodness, this gets very claustrophobic. Starts as a set of isolated stories of each of the people who are staying in a wooden lodge set in a holiday park next to a Scottish loch. In the rain. A very very wet summer, with the rain almost being a character in its own right. In each story there is
Each chapter from the view of the people is interspersed with a short vignette almost form the point of view of the loch, the forest, the birds and animals that are present. And yet in this too, the weather is a pervasive force that is unsettling.
The gradually escalating tension does not make this a relaxing summer holiday read, but it does make it something you don't want to put down.
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some dissatisfaction with life and some kind of underlying lie or supressed emotion that is not being shared. At times you hear from multiple members of the same lodge, and they often present a very different view of the position. At times they share the same dissatisfaction, at times it is a different uneasiness that underlies the narrative. The narrators vary in age from a child to an elderly couple. each comes equipped with their own world view and they view the park and the other inhabitants through their own lens. The violence, when it erupts, is somehow both shocking and entirely predictable. Each chapter from the view of the people is interspersed with a short vignette almost form the point of view of the loch, the forest, the birds and animals that are present. And yet in this too, the weather is a pervasive force that is unsettling.
The gradually escalating tension does not make this a relaxing summer holiday read, but it does make it something you don't want to put down.
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LibraryThing member bookomaniac
A drowned summer holiday, on a lake in Scotland. The perpetual rain is not gone give you happy feelings, and this novel certainly isn't. As in a kaleidoscope, Moss gives the floor one by one to the temporary residents of a holiday center, each in their own bungalow, preoccupied with usually rather
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gloomy worries. She has spread the narrators nicely by age and gender, and also lets them spy a bit on each other. This is a process that allows her to gradually increase the tension, until the dramatic denouement at the end. Not really badly done, but not spectacular either. Both literary and story wise it felt a bit underwhelmed. Show Less
LibraryThing member Helen.Callaghan
Fast becoming one of my favourite authors. I loved this interleaving story of families in a run-down Scottish holiday park during a single day of unceasing rain. It's so beautifully written, so precise, and unexpectedly full of dry humour.
LibraryThing member Dabble58
What a tour de force!
Summer-water describes a summer holiday in Scotland, spent in tiny damp cottages overfilled with damp families. Depressed mothers, absent fathers, grumpy teenagers, crying babies, and a malevolent girl all cower in their cottages in the rain, the everlasting rain.
We’ve all
Sarah Moss manages to enclose the reader in holiday claustrophobia in such a poetic way that you don’t really notice that you are feeling a distinct unease, a sense of foreboding, a wish for something to break, somehow, because you know something bad is going to happen.
Fantastic. It’s a short book, which is probably good because near the end the tension is almost unbearable. Moss gets the inner monologues of her characters perfectly, from the teenagers contemplating the bleakness of their future existence to the wife trying to remain interested in a mutual orgasm project. I found myself nodding in agreement with all the characters’ life stages.
Mind you, it is a sticky novella- I imagine the images will stay in my mind like the streams of mud all of the characters have to plunge through. Not to be read on a rainy vacation.
Summer-water describes a summer holiday in Scotland, spent in tiny damp cottages overfilled with damp families. Depressed mothers, absent fathers, grumpy teenagers, crying babies, and a malevolent girl all cower in their cottages in the rain, the everlasting rain.
We’ve all
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had holidays like this, where the plan seems sound until you get somewhere and it is all quite gruesome and wet and everyone hates each other and wishes for a return to comfortable beds and modern conveniences, not least the poor mothers who somehow end up doing all the cooking and cleaning anyway. I still regret not helping my mother more on our camping “holidays”.Sarah Moss manages to enclose the reader in holiday claustrophobia in such a poetic way that you don’t really notice that you are feeling a distinct unease, a sense of foreboding, a wish for something to break, somehow, because you know something bad is going to happen.
Fantastic. It’s a short book, which is probably good because near the end the tension is almost unbearable. Moss gets the inner monologues of her characters perfectly, from the teenagers contemplating the bleakness of their future existence to the wife trying to remain interested in a mutual orgasm project. I found myself nodding in agreement with all the characters’ life stages.
Mind you, it is a sticky novella- I imagine the images will stay in my mind like the streams of mud all of the characters have to plunge through. Not to be read on a rainy vacation.
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LibraryThing member thisisstephenbetts
Loose story told from multiple viewpoints of people living in holiday cottages around a loch. Moss really depicts the people very well (although a couple of times I did have to remind myself who was who, especially whose child was whose). No spoilers, but I wasn't so enamored by the ending, but can
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see others disagreeing, so I'm not down on it. Show Less
LibraryThing member suesbooks
This is a very well written book with many characters somewhat difficult to differentiate. They are on a vacation in Scotland where the weather is awful. They are staying in an old rental community with much history, but Moss foreshadows the bleak ending that occurs. It seems as if she is
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predicting the end of the world either due to climate change and/or a plague so it is now easy to believe. Some of her characters are almost cartoons, but her on the spot writing saved the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member boredgames
a masterclass of a roving point of view, though i am not sure how memorable this will be
LibraryThing member ZeljanaMaricFerli
Summerwater tells the story of a group of families spending their holidays in a cabin park by a Scottish loch.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of one individual from each cabin, except for one (there is a big reason for that).
There is almost no interaction between these people
Each chapter gives us a piece of the puzzle before the main event takes place.
Some chapters are interludes about the natural world. These were beautiful.
“The woods expand, settle down for the night, offer a little more shelter to those that need it. Trees sleep, more or less. Maybe some nights they dream and wake, check the darkness, sleep again till dawn.”
Along the way, we catch little details, hints at Brexit, the climate crisis, the future full of uncertainty.
Summerwater reflects the spirit of times similar to the way Ali Smith does it in her Seasonal series. Obviously, their style is very different, but I love them both for their ability to gently move our focus from the big things we can't control to the compassion and love for those perceived as "the other" that we most certainly can.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of one individual from each cabin, except for one (there is a big reason for that).
There is almost no interaction between these people
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outside their cabins and the holidays are seemingly ruined by the constant rain. The gloomy mood is echoed by the characters who reflect on their lives in a stream-of-consciousness style, often with a dark sense of humour or very intimate, lyrical observations.Each chapter gives us a piece of the puzzle before the main event takes place.
Some chapters are interludes about the natural world. These were beautiful.
“The woods expand, settle down for the night, offer a little more shelter to those that need it. Trees sleep, more or less. Maybe some nights they dream and wake, check the darkness, sleep again till dawn.”
Along the way, we catch little details, hints at Brexit, the climate crisis, the future full of uncertainty.
Summerwater reflects the spirit of times similar to the way Ali Smith does it in her Seasonal series. Obviously, their style is very different, but I love them both for their ability to gently move our focus from the big things we can't control to the compassion and love for those perceived as "the other" that we most certainly can.
Show Less
Awards
Independent Booksellers' Book Prize (Shortlist — Fiction — 2021)
Orwell Prize (Longlist — 2021)
NPR: Books We Love (2021)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020
Physical description
208 p.; 7.76 inches
ISBN
1529035473 / 9781529035476