{"product_id":"groundwater","title":"Groundwater","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy the winner of the Betty Trask Prize – an atmospheric and powerfully menacing story about family, secrets and violence\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Complex and chilling’ \u003ci\u003eFINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘Masterful – uncanny and unsettling’ SOPHIE MACKINTOSH\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘A disquieting study in estrangement’ \u003ci\u003eIRISH TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn and Liz have left the city to move to a remote house on the shores of a lake. But along with the boxes, they have brought their trouble with them. They find the new house already haunted – by their old disappointments and longing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough the house is barely unpacked, Liz’s sister, with her children and husband, have come to visit. Over the course of a hot, slow week, tensions simmer; things go unsaid. And as outsiders descend on the house the atmosphere grows claustrophobic, the pressure near unbearable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs summer draws to a close, and their family is thrown into crisis, John and Liz must confront what it means to belong to a place – and to each other.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''What animates the novel is a series of tensions: between material stability and emotional turmoil; idealism and conformity; speech and silence; love in the abstract and love in practice; between a life and the life’ \u003ci\u003eTIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e‘A finely drawn portrait not only of a couple in crisis, but of a world on the verge of disaster … McMullan writes with a masterful naturalism\u003ci\u003e’ FINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''A masterclass in apprehension, exposing the fissures between an imagined life and its reality with stealthy power, and boldly upending reader expectations. Richly unsettling’ \u003ci\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484236587381,"sku":"9781526678003","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781526678003.jpg?v=1786266286","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/groundwater","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}