The Well
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB READ
AN OBSERVER NEW FACE OF FICTION 2015
A HUFFINGTON POST 'ONE TO WATCH IN 2015'
LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2015
'I was gripped by Catherine Chanter's The Well immediately. The beauty of her prose is riveting, the imagery so assured. This is an astonishing debut' Sarah Winman, author of When God was a Rabbit
'I loved this book!' JESSIE BURTON, author of The Miniaturist
When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London in their grime-encrusted car and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place, a farm that appears to offer everything the family are searching for. An opportunity for Ruth. An escape for Mark. A home for their grandson Lucien.
But The Well's unique glory comes at a terrible price. The locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours' produce withers and dies. Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth is less and less sure who she can trust.
As The Well envelops them, Ruth's paradise becomes a prison, Mark's dream a recurring nightmare, and Lucien's playground a grave.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We’re telling every book club member we know to put The Well at the top of their reading list. British author Catherine Chanter’s debut is a stunning accomplishment: a completely original dystopian thriller. Ruth Ardingly is placed under house arrest in the isolated country house she and her husband bought to escape London. Broken and weary, she reflects back on the dramatic events that led to her family’s downfall. Set in a near-future England parched by drought and beset by a totalitarian regime, The Well is a gripping tale fraught with turbulent relationships, superstition, secrets, lies and a shocking tragedy. The novel heralds Chanter as an author to watch.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Chanter's extraordinary first novel envisions the U.K. so ravaged by drought that personal and civic life fracture. At midlife, Ruth and Mark Ardingly leave London for a small farm in the west of England called the Well, where they cherish nature and long visits with their five-year-old grandson, Lucien, the child of their troubled daughter Angie. As drought deepens into national disaster, the Well remains inexplicably verdant. Under the pressure from local attacks, government interventions, and media uproar, the couple's marriage collapses. Then the Sisters of the Rose, a tiny extremist sect, arrives, claiming that Ruth is the chosen one who helps bring rain and demanding the Well be cleared of men. Thousands start following their worship online. Ruth is drawn so deeply into their beliefs that she begins to have religious visions. Might she have committed a murder in a mystical state? Combining gripping mystery, nuanced psychological drama, and striking prose, this debut is a mesmerizing read.
