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Waterland

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About this listen

 FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY.

One summer morning in 1943, lock-keeper Henry Crick finds the drowned body of a sixteen-year-old boy. Nearly forty years later, his son Tom, a history teacher, is driven by a bizarre marital crisis and the provocation of one of his students to forsake the formal teaching of history—and tell stories . . .

Waterland is a classic of modern fiction: a vision of England seen through its mysterious, amphibious Fen country; a sinuous meditation on the workings of time; a tale of two families, startling in its twists and turns and universal in its reach. Compulsively readable, it is a novel of resonant depth and encyclopaedic richness, mixing human and natural history and exploring the tragic forces that take us both forwards and back. It is also a book about beer, eels, the French Revolution, the end of the world, windmills, will-o’-the-wisps, murder, love, education, curiosity and—supremely—the malign and merciful element of water.

‘A quite brilliant novel’ Daily Telegraph

‘Inspired’ New York Times
©1983 Graham Swift (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, UK Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction French Revolution

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Lolly Willowes cover art
One of the best novels I have listened and read. A sweeping, epic tale that keeps at it's heart human emotions told through the eyes of an out of time history teacher. Everything is here, class, history, Britain, nature, love. A well told tale, with twists and turns as good as any thriller. Alex Jennings is a superb performer and this is one I will return to time and time again.

DESERVES TO BE A CLASSIC

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So well read and engrossing. Depicts the Fenland landscape with such strong brushstrokes. A fine work.

An engrossing landscape

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I loved the slow drip of information, creating a picture of family life in the fens.
probably the best book I've ever read/ listened to

brilliant story telling

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Read it Now! it's in a class of its own. mysterious and thought provoking, a real escape.

fascinating and bizarre, unputdownable

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Cleverly narrated by a history teacher about to leave his post, this novel is about generations of families intertwined in the fenlands of East Anglia and how the watery landscape forms the backdrop to the their lives, reclaiming the land and washing away their futile attempts to change it. A brilliant portrait of human fragility

Murky, nauseating and brilliant

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I read several Graham Swift books when they were published and I have refreshed my memory of them using Audible. I am glad I did because I think Alex Jennings reads them so well and these books give you so many themes to think about from the history and affect of the fenland landscape to history and the study of history itself and more besides.

Glad I revisited

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Written with jaw dropping fluidity by author Graham Swift, like the river that inspires the story, the listener is drawn in from the start by the tale of a boy that drowns in a lock. Swift is surely one of the great wordsmiths of our era. Waterland is beautifully complimented by Alex Jennings' eloquent narration. An audiobook to treasure.

Much more than a vivid history of the Fenlands

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I've loved this. It moves eel like between times and situations with Tom as the one who is working to understand his own history - He's a history teacher and a brilliant one, if, unappreciated by his peers.

An astonishing work

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This watery story gripped me from start to finish and was beautifully read. Highly recommended.

Engrossing

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Compelling and surprising from start to finish. How our own histories play out against the back drop of global histories, and ultimately help shape the relationships, heartbreak and our own personal inner landscapes. A completely addictive story of inheritance, masterfully weaved.

An exceptional read

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