As regular readers may know, I’ve been a Sarah Moss fan for quite some time. I was delighted when Ghost Wall made a splash not so long ago, thoroughly deserving of all the praise heaped upon it, and Summerwater looks set to do the same. Set over a single drenching day, Moss’ new novella takes us into a set of chalets in a remote Scottish park where the hoped-for peace and quiet is shattered by the partying of one renegade family.
Each of the wooden lochside lodges is occupied with holidaymakers contemplating what to do faced with the deluge outside. Justine’s not going to let it deter her from her daily run, leaving her husband and two sons in bed, determined to keep her fortysomething body in shape even if Steve has given up that battle. David knows he and Mary will take their customary ferry trip from the cabin they’ve owned for thirty years, their activities curtailed by Mary’s failing health. Alex ventures out in his kayak speculating about the chances of an underage drink in the pub leaving his sister Becky to the chores and her adolescent contempt for their parents. Meanwhile, Milly’s mind wanders as Josh pursues his goal of their simultaneous orgasms, somewhat ineptly. As the day wears on, the holidaymakers find ways to entertain themselves on this dismal summer’s day, some of them increasingly irritated by the loud music emanating from one of the chalets and wondering what to do about it.
A wind strokes the hillside, disturbs the trees, lifts the rain sideways into her face
Moss structures her elegantly slim novella almost like a set of tightly linked short stories, dipping in and out of the chalet occupants’ long wet day, exploring their preoccupations through the thoughts running through their heads. Each chapter smoothly shifts perspective, lent its own distinctive tone by its character’s inner voice, from Milly’s smartly funny musings, hoping that her carefully policed fantasies will speed up Josh’s progress so that she can have breakfast to Mary’s poignant awareness that her memory is slipping away. Beneath it all is the low hum of xenophobia, each of the holidaymakers giving the nosy chalet’s inhabitants a different eastern European nationality having not bothered to find out for themselves. The sense of menace which characterised Ghost Wall is less strong, but there’s a quietly insistent understanding that things are unlikely to end well. Another superb slice of fiction from Moss, sharply observed and delivered with characteristic insight. Although I very much enjoyed her earlier historical novels, I think her contemporary work is even better. Already looking forward to the next one.
Picador: London 9781529035438 208 pages Hardback
I couldn’t resist and bought myself a copy of this at my wonderful local indie bookshop yesterday (who had the signed ltd first edition for indie bookshops which made it even better).
I spotted that on Twitter, Annabel. A double treat!
I’m a big fan as well and will be reading this one very soon.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, Marina. Sad not to see it on the Booker longlist but there’s always next year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
You already know how much I enjoyed this. What struck me most about the book was the way in which people’s habits have become so ingrained that they behave in ways that they really no longer question as to their appropriateness. Some of these have almost become genetic memories, passed from generation to generation. I think she shows this most strongly in the shorter passages centred around the natural life of the area, but it would also account for what happens at the end.
Sadly, I think she’s entirely accurate in that although I remain hopeful that our current predicament may shake some of those habits.
This does sound lovely, the setting especially appeals to me. I have read three of Sarah Moss’s earlier novels.
She’s so good at giving each character their own voice in this one, something that I don’t remember so much from her previous novels.
Marvellous. Can’t wait to read this one
I hope you love it as much as I did, Cathy.
I pre-ordered this from my local indie bookshop and it arrived today. So happy I did that, reading this review. 🙂
I hope you love it as much as I did, Kath. Today’s a good day to get stuck in if it’s been as wet there as it is here.
I thought Ghost Wall was excellent and this sounds so good – the taut length and the setting are really appealing.
I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one if you liked Ghost Wall. Very different but equally good, if not better. The changing of perspectives is so well done.
I’m excited for this one even though I haven’t read Ghost Wall yet. I have it out from the library again, though – let’s hope I get to it this time!
I hope you manage it, Naomi. It’ll be hard to put down once you get around to picking it up!
I’m looking forward to reading this once WIT is over, might be my first September read and it will be the first time reading this author, thanks to your review of her previous work.
Delighted to hear that, Claire. I hope you love her writing as much as I do.
I held off reading your review until I was able to publish mine – it comes as no surprise that we both enjoyed this. What an absolutely brilliant read.
Agreed! Definitely one of my books of this year.
Over the past week, I’ve been catching up with August’s posts, and so just the other day I read BookishBeck’s not-so-thrilled response to this one and now have yours to compare to it; I think this will be to my taste, the spare and specific and deliberate structure, carefully honed, that can so easily so awry but in the hands of a master storyteller can be so eminently satisfying. (I’ve only read one by Moss but I thought it was delightfully layered and deceptively complex.)
Yes, I’m firmly in the Moss fan camp and was sorry not to see this one on the Booker longlist. Rebecca and I have learnt sometimes to agree to disagree!