Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This is the third book I have read by Sarah Hall, and I have to say she is an amazingly gifted writer. I loved The Electric Michelangelo and approached Haweswater with eager anticipation. It did not disappoint.

Haweswater tells the story of the quaint English farming village of Marsdale which in 1936 is due to be flooded through the creation of the Haweswater dam and reservoir, to be sacrificed for the greater good. Jack Ligget is a Waterworks representative who arrives to apprise the village residents of the plan, an objective outsider who finds the village and its people having an unexpected and transformative effect on him.

This is also the story of the Lightburn family; father Samuel, mother Ella, young son Isaac, forever drawn to the water, and daughter Janet, a passionate and strong-willed young woman who faces Jack Ligget head-on.

This book is ultimately about transformation in its various forms and lays bare the human experience without reservation. Love and hatred, lust and anger, grief and redemption are offered up for the reader to take into themselves, to feel and absorb. Through vivid and beautiful language this author creates settings and characters which draw the reader in as one of them. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.