Author:Robert Edric
It is 1847, northern England, and Charles Weightman has been given the unenviable task of overseeing the flooding of the Forge Valley and evicting its lingering inhabitants. Weightman is heartily resented by these locals, and he himself is increasingly unconvinced both of the wisdom of his appointment and of the integrity and motives of the company men who posted him there. He finds some solace, however, in his enigmatic neighbour, Mary Latimer. Caring for her mad sister, Mary is also an outsider, and a companionship develops between the two of them which offers them both some comfort and support in their mutual isolation.
As winter closes steadily in and as the waters begin to rise in the Forge Valley, it becomes increasingly evident that the man-made deluge cannot be avoided; not by the locals desperate to save their homes, nor by the reluctant agent of their destruction, Weightman himself.
In a masterful new novel, Edric captures powerful human emotions with grace and precision. The hauntingly resonant backdrop to this story of David and Goliath marks Edric's dramatic return to historical literary fiction.
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.
—— Daily TelegraphGathering 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.
—— Sunday TimesBooker judges take note.
—— GuardianGathering 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.
—— Daily MailA 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.
—— TLSAssured, supple, graceful prose
—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent[An] extraordinary, unusually philosophical and human novel... Moore's prose is precise, never laboured and always, and this is the crucial point, convincing
—— Eileen Battersby , Irish TimesSkilfully structured...delicate, involving novel
—— Daily ExpressMoore deftly weaves together the present...and the past, evoking memory and grief in pitch-perfect detail
—— New YorkerA very moving study of memory and grief
—— Adrian Turpin , Financial TimesLisa Moore's style is cool, clear, lethally accurate and reminiscent of Raymond Carver
—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on SundayLisa Moore offers a devastating study of loneliness that is moving but never sentimental
—— Irish TimesA well-crafted and shrewd meditation on motherhood and loss.
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentA tragedy at sea, a miracle on paper... Moore offers us, elegantly, exultantly, the very consciousness of her characters. In this way, she does more than make us feel for them. She makes us feel what they feel, which is the point of literature and maybe even the point of being human.
—— Globe and MailThis mesmerising book is full of tears, and is a graceful meditation on how to survive life's losses
—— Marie ClaireFans of Anita Shreve and Anne Enright will love this
—— Viv Groskop , Red MagazineThe gentle, meandering pace of this exquisitely expresses the agony of grief and the confusions and complexities of parental love
—— Easy LivingMoore's portrayal of loss is remarkably real
—— Clare Longrigg , PsychologiesProfoundly moving, beautifully written book
—— Waterstone's Books QuarterlyA marvellous book
—— Winnipeg Free PressA perfectly pitched novel that captures its characters and their dilemmas.
—— Woman and Home
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