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The Standing Pool
The Standing Pool
Jul 17, 2025 3:03 AM

Author:Adam Thorpe

The Standing Pool

Two Cambridge academics, the historians Nick and Sarah Mallinson, take a sabbatical with their three small and lively girls in a remote Languedoc farmhouse. But the farmhouse contains its own histories, far darker and murkier than the Mallinsons are used to dealing with. As the illusion of Eden retreats, the couple begin to feel the vulnerability of being among strangers...

Reviews

Superior novel...wincingly precise in his imagery and technically adept... An electric and darkly gleeful read

—— Daily Mail

An immensely clever, tragicomic novel...a rich meditation on past and present colonial politics... What resonates for me is what I greatly admire in all Thorpe's work: the complex depth, and the texture and poetry of his storytelling language

—— Financial Times

An intimate depiction of family life... Vivid and luminous

—— Independent on Sunday

Because this is Adam Thorpe, there are only two things you know for certain: that the writing will be gorgeous, silky-smooth; and that the plot will be entirely original, defying categorisation...enjoy

—— Sunday Telegraph

An intricate fiction which reminds us gently that war wrecks lives in ways too tangled to anticipate

—— Times Literary Supplement

The plot is terrific and the pace fast and furious...A terrific story told by a master storyteller

—— Historical Novels Review

Grimly, intelligently comic as if written by an Asian Joseph Heller

—— Daily Telegraph

If this rich stew of disparate ingredients puts you in mind of Salman Rushdie, you wouldn't be far from the truth. His work, along with that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Joseph Heller, is a low-key but persistent influence

—— Sunday Times

An exciting, accomplished new literary voice

—— Irish Times

A very funny satire-cum-thriller

—— Sally Cousins , Sunday Telegraph Seven

Somewhere in mid-air between Waugh and Rushdie (with an shade of Catch 22 hovering near by) this tremendous novel makes a tragicomic weather all its own

—— Boyd Tonkin , The Independent

Justly Booker longlisted last year, this debut is a dazzling one-off

—— Hermione Eyre , The Observer

Provocative and comic debut.

—— The Times

A true touch of originality ... showcases a promising new talent.

—— Colin Waters , Sunday Herald

Dry, droll and insightful

—— The Independent

Bodice-ripping romp through the West

—— Times

Missy by Strong and memorable female characters throughout this enjoyable novel

—— http://meandmybigmouth.typepad.com/scottpack

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton
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