Reservoir logs

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

Rightly long listed for the Man Booker prize this year, this is a terrific book and would have been a worthy winner had it made it to the shortlist. However, I’m sure it will do well in subsequent awards, especially coffee-themed ones.

 

At its heart this is a mystery in which a teenage girl goes missing in the countryside, sparking a major search and media focus on a quiet village. Everyone joins in the hunt for a while, but life has to carry on and gradually things seem to get back to normal. However, nothing can ever be the same again. Year in, year out, everyone goes about their business, but the disappearance seems to infect every part of village and country life. It’s a beautifully written, deceptively transparent and perfectly paced novel. This is the fourth novel from McGregor, professor of creative writing at the University of Nottingham, and it is undoubtedly his best. Pastoral and poetic, powerful and deep, it is a truly outstanding work and certainly the best novel I’ve read this year.

One of the few copies of the book in which the author included a line from ‘On the Ball City’

 

NB This review previously appeared in THE’s ‘What are you reading?’