The North Water

In Ian McGuire’s sharp and original thriller, a violent confrontation between two men plays out in the freezing darkness of an Arctic winter.

Stinking, drunk, brutal and bloodthirsty, Henry Drax is a harpooner on a whaling ship bound for the hunting waters of the Arctic Circle. Also aboard is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with no money and no better option than to embark as ship's medic on this ill-fated voyage. As their journey continues, trapped together in the wooden belly of the ship, Sumner realise that he has finally encountered pure evil - and is forced to act.

"McGuire has an extraordinary talent for picturing a moment, offering precise, sharp, cinematic details. When he has to describe complex action, he ­manages the physicality with immense clarity. He writes about violence with unsparing color and, at times, a sort of relish. The writing moves sometimes from the poetic to the purple, but McGuire is careful not to use too many metaphors or similes or too much fancy writing when he needs to make clear what cold feels like, or hunger or fear."  - Colm Toibin, The New York Book Review