Reservoir 13

Evoking the spirit of Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides, Zadie Smith's NW, and Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance, this novel sweeps the reader up quickly into its understated and emotionally moving story of a whole English village haunted by one family’s loss.

Midwinter in an English village. A teenage girl has gone missing. Everyone is called upon to join the search. The villagers fan out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on what is usually a place of peace. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed.

As the seasons unfold and the search for the missing girl goes on, there are those who leave the village and those who are pulled back; those who come together and those who break apart. There are births and deaths; secrets kept and exposed; livelihoods made and lost; small kindnesses and unanticipated betrayals. 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 thirteen years as the aftershocks of a tragedy refuse to subside.

Winner of the Costa Novel Award, Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

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