Reservoir 13

A Guardian Book of the Year

A Financial Times Book of the Year

A TLS Book of the Year

An Observer Book of the Year

A Telegraph Book of the Year

From the award-winning author of If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. Reservoir 13 tells the story of many lives haunted by one family's loss.

Midwinter in the early years of this century. A teenage girl on holiday has gone missing in the hills at the heart of England. The villagers are called up to join the search, fanning out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on their usually quiet home.

Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed.

The search for the missing girl goes on, but so does everyday life. As it must.

An extraordinary novel of cumulative power and grace, Reservoir 13 explores the rhythms of the natural world and the repeated human gift for violence, unfolding over 13 years as the aftershocks of a stranger's tragedy refuse to subside.

Winner of the 2017 Costa Novel Award

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize

Genre: Literary Fiction

"Reservoir 13 is a masterfully paced and grippingly controlled read that finds the shadows, the wildness, in the ordinary heart of a community." - Colin Barrett

"Reservoir 13 is quite extraordinary - the way it's structured, the way it rolls, the skill with which Jon McGregor lets the characters breathe and age. It's like watching more than a decade of living from a slow-moving train." - Roddy Doyle

"If more proof were needed that Jon McGregor is one of the finest and most versatile novelists writing today, this is it." - Sarah Hall

"Absolutely magnificent; one of the most beautiful, affecting novels I've read in years. The prose is alive and ringing. There is so much space and life in every sentence. I don't know how he's done it. It's beautiful." - Eimear McBride

"Jon McGregor is a writer who will make a significant stamp on world literature. In fact, he already has." - Colum McCann

"John McGregor is one of the UK's most fascinating and versatile writers. The fact that most American readers have never heard of him does not speak well of us. Let's all buy his book NOW." - Gary Shteyngart

"If you don't yet know you should read novels by Jon McGregor, then I can't help you." - Evie Wyld