Gathering the Water belongs with a group of his (Edric's) novels whose artistry and resonance constitute one of the most astonishing bodies of work to appear from a single author for a generation.

Gathering the Water is a small novel but one that packs a mighty punch. Stylistically it is superb .....above all though, it is in his marshalling of his themes that Edric proves himself such an accomplished novelist. At one level a book about loss and guilt, loyalty and ambition, madness and reality, Gathering the Water in fact ranges even further in its concerns, contrasting the immutability of nature with the similarly crushing immutability of money and business ........a power-packed, stunningly crafted novel.

Booker judges take note.

Gathering the Water is an admirably serious novel, written in prose as spare as its setting. Its lament for the death of the community is subtle and powerful.

A compelling story ......Robert Edric writes with a steady rhythm that, like the flow of the diverted dam waters, fills in a picture of horror and loss with a sustained and unrelenting force.