The North Water A Novel [Paperback]

One ofTheNew York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year

National Bestseller

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Winner of the RSL Encore Award

Finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize

ANew York TimesandWall Street JournalBestseller

Named a Best Book of the Year byChicago Tribune,The Wall Street Journal,The Guardian,New Statesman,Publishers Weekly, andChicago Public Library

Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on theVolunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.

In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop, but now, trapped in the wooden belly of the ship with Drax, he encounters pure evil and is forced to act. As the true purposes of the expedition become clearer, the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter.

Ian McGuiregrew up near Hull, England, and studied at the University of Manchester and the University of Virginia in the United States. He is the cofounder and codirector of the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing. He writes criticism and fiction, and his stories have been published inChicago Review,TheParis Review, and elsewhere.The North Wateris his second novel.

A stunning achievement, by turns great fun and shocking, thrilling and provocative....Behold: one of the finest books of the year.The Independent(London)

Riveting and darkly brilliant...The North Waterfeel³-