The North Water: A Novel

as others have noted, the writing is a cross between Jack London and Cormac McCarthy. fantastic imagery. not for the fainthearted, but not over the top gratuitous gore either. the protagonist, if you can call him that, evolves or devolves as it were. has his own sort of redemption which was gratifying to experience with him. loved it!

I bought this book on the Hilary Mantel recommendation. I had to put it down after the first 25 pages because it was making me ill. I then thought about the skill of an author who could make me ill with written words. I finished it in a day. Five stars for writing skill. Four stars for historical value. Three stars for the overall plot. Zero stars for the ending. The ending was very unsatisfying after all the trauma of reading it. Read it. You can have interesting conversations with others who endured it.

Vivid as it is demented and disturbing, this novel will have you pressing forward, looking up the vast number of words you won’t recognize, and unable to stop turning the pages. A modern masterwork? I believe so.

This book was definitely very intriguing - the language is extremely vulgar but the characters are very raw and we'll developed.... Would recommend to anyone who likes suspense and violence with a great plot

Great yarn and great writing. Here's a vivid sample, when our surgeon hero is taking a lancet to the stomach of an ailing missionary to drain an abcess: "As soon as he pierces the cavity wall, a pint or more of foul and flocculent pus, turbid and pinkish grey, squirts unhindered out of the newly made breach, spattering across the table and coating Sumner's hands and forearms. The roaring stench of excrement and decay instantly fills the cabin. The discharge is fibrinous, bloody and thick as Cornish cream; it pulses out from the narrow opening like the last twitching apogee of a monstrous ejaculation."

Because of the crude behavior and language of the characters early on in the book, I almost put it down. Very glad I didn't. Fascinating story of a whaling ship on its quest to kill whales. Unfortunately the ships owner has a different objective. Characters are interesting, story is fast paced and adventure in the Arctic is exciting. Loved the ending which I didn't expect.

Jack London reincarnated, but with a grimy ugly fierceness that is very much a creation of our times. I loved it, but the blood, bile, and feces might be a bit much for some. A great story and a true page turner, with a more literary sensibility and thoughtfulness than anything else of its ilk I've read in a long time.

Compelling immersion into the violent life of a whaler. The characters are true and gristly, my wife couldn't get passed two pages. Not a light read. Brutal, vivid, honest but the depictions stay with you months later. How often does that happen?

A thoroughly enjoyable read. The narrative is raw and descriptive. It is not predictable. The story line captivates. It draws you in and holds your interest throughout. You can slow down and savor the read without the compunction of pressing on to see what lies on the following pages. If you enjoy sea adventures you will enjoy this book. If adventure alone does not satisfy and there is need for character development and complexity this is well worth your time.

Dark, brutal, unforgiving, and ultimately beautiful. A violent story that explores some of the deeper themes of human nature while at the same time throwing you into a terrifying survival adventure across the northern whaling grounds up surrounding Greenland. If that's your cup of tea, this is a no-brainer. Ian McGuire's prose is clear and powerful and seems to me like a combination of Cormac McCarthy and Ernest Hemingway, jumping from sprawlingly eloquent to suddenly terse and blunt as the story demands. Perhaps a needlessly lofty comparison, but trust me: this is fantastic writing.

As of right now this is easily my favorite novel of 2016.

I'm sure this book has been endlessly and tirelessly compared to Cormac McCarthy, but it's an apt comparison. What is really impressive here is how vividly the author brings the 1850s whaling industry to life. And how engaging it is. Couldn't put this one down. Looking forward to the author's future works for sure.

Dont read this book if you're squeamish! However, if you can deal with the blood, gore and evil that McGuire presents, it's a very interesting panorama of virtue,ethical dilemmas,,growing courage, the mystical and spiritual darkness, not to mention polar darkness as well..

In my almost daily "gambling" on daily deals, "The North Water" proved my biggest jackpot yet. The reviews and awards from respected sources significantly reduced what little risk was involved. The accolades were well deserved as I welcomed any opportunity, even a traffic delay, to read a few more pages. It has been a while since a book has grabbed me like this one did. Murder mysteries never get a chance. It's a beautifully written and sensually revolting tale of violence in a dark and miserable world. This is as close to the adventure of sailing on a whaling ship you'll ever want to get. But you won't want it to end.

Great literary fiction page turner. A brutally graphic depiction of life on a whaling ship in the late 1850s. Almost all of the men on the whaler are ignorant, filthy, foul-mouthed near-animals. One of the crew, a surgeon, is educated, relatively sensitive and humane. How can he survive a long voyage with these creatures? If you liked the HBO TV series "Oz", you'll love this book.

Decent story if a little predictable. A good short read though. Entertaining enough without being too wordy though characters and scenes could have been a little more rounded out. I enjoyed it without devoting too much time to it.

If you enjoyed 'The Revenant' you will probably enjoy this one, too. A fatalistic seafaring tale that turns out to be so much more. Reads well as a novel and would probably make an excellent movie (unless Hollywood ruins it). I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys gritty realism, graphic violence and relentless darkness. Perfect for Mother's Day!

Fantastic read! Compelling on many levels and beautifully written. Some of the best (and most gruesome) descriptions I've ever read. Not for the squeamish! The author has a tremendous vocabulary too. I learned so many new words reading this book. Highly recommended!!

This novel is a relentless, frightening tale of evil and corruption. It is not for the fainthearted reader. Death and killing - of men, animals, and the human spirit - are inextricably woven into every page. Yet there is some small redemption at the end. Drax is a brute but astute in the way men think. Sumner, escaping his sordid past, travels with him aboard a doomed whaling ship. McGuire has crafted a marvel of narrative historical fiction. Though the gruesome depictions of life aboard a whaler and the graphic descriptions of what vicious men are capable of can be trying. Do your homework before reading this. But if you decide to read it, you'll be rewarded with a gripping story.

This is probably the best written book I have read all year. The images of the cold north and life on a ship were fascinating. Some of the characters were extremely violent but represented the more base side that could exist in everyone. I simply could not put this book down.

Find a comfortable place to read, because it only takes a couple pages to be captured by this engrossing and captivating story. Mr. McGuire writes of a time and of men that is raw, savage, and unbearably brutal, in a voice that is calm and objective. The characters leap off the pages in a story that is intriguing, harsh, and altogether human.

I didn't just read this book -- I still feel the cold, the biting wind, and the brutal shock of inhumanity that is delivered between the covers.

Great characters, and a great story, beautifully told in the language of the time. It's not romantic and is graphic in the story telling, but it never fails to keep the reader involved. I thought the ending was a disappointment and the only reason I didn't give it five stars.

A great book for those who like a great adventure, of murder, deciet, and survival in the icey waters around Greenland, on an ill fated ship as their crew try to hunt the few remaining whales for their oil and blubber, as the ice and winter hover around them. It is set in the latter part of the 19th century when the whale hunting business was on the wane, and the discovery of oil was becoming more lucrative and the fuel of the future.

A harsh and brutal beginning followed by faint hope. Sumner, the principal character, still a mystery at the end. Characters were like grasshoppers. They appeared and left rapidly. Great jumps in the story at the end to find the close. It is a weak story well told.

Well, written with fully developed characters and an obvious knowledge of history. The pace never flagged. It never felt slow or uniteresting. The twists were unexpected and effective. This is a book of murder and survival, Highly recommended.

Excellent book with great insight into the brutish nature of man. The descriptions of hunting whales were vivid. A lot of gore and death and the most unlikely man finds strength and reinvents himself. This is McGuire's second novel, looking forward to reading the first.

The North Water has everything: murder, mystery, raunch, and intrigue. Most of all, it is a gripping story of men in a desperate situation brought to life with vivid imagery and lyrical prose. One of the best I've read in a long time. Highly recommended!!!

One of the most powerful whaling novels of recent origin, with echoes of Melville: Moby Dick and
Conrad:Heart of Darkness, a gloomy tour de force into the Victorian underworld, and the balance
of good and evil in humanity. Highly Recommended if you can take it.

This novel is reminiscent of Moby Dock. It is the story of the men on a nineteenth century whaling ship bound from England to the Arctic ocean. The main character Patrick Sumner is an Irish surgeon fleeing from his posting in India following activities which caused him to be dishonorably discharged from the English army. The story focuses on the characters on the whaling ship describing their brutality and savagery. The book is bloody and violent highlighting good and evil and juxtaposing man's brutality with the beauty and savagery of nature. The descriptions are vivid and engrossing.

First, if you can not abide by graphic descriptions and the morally depraved then this is not for you. Beyond this reason, there is no other reason not to read The North Water. Mr. McGuire is masterful in his story development and the precise delivery to convey the tone and timber. An excellent read.

Grim, bloodthirsty, gory and violent. The story unfolds aboard the ill fated whaling vessel "Volunteer" in the year 1857. There are a cast of characters from the psychopath Henry Drax to the haunted Surgeon Patrick Sumner. It becomes a game of "cat and mouse" between these two characters.

The atmosphere is dark, very very dark. The writing style is visual, you feel the tension, the claustrophobia, the soul numbing cold of the Arctic and the despair of the crew as they fight for survival against insurmountable odds.

The novel is fast paced, there are some dark themes at play in the story. It's not a novel for the faint of heart. The cruelty shown to the animals was my undoing here I'm afraid.

I can appreciate the skill the author has shown but found that after a while I became quite anaesthetised to the violence.

A great storyline, nothing fancy or heartwarming here, but if you're looking for a book filled with adventure and an honest look at whaling life and how horrible we can be to each other, this is your story. Not usually my genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

An extraordinary tale of courage and evil.
Having been to Baffen Island, I was able to picture the extraordinary landscape and picture the events as they were happening in book.
My vocabulary has also been improved by reading this excellent novel.

Ian McGuire is a gifted writer, whose images of whaling and its arcane language are powerful. This is far from the first book in the genre, though, and the main thing McGuire adds is degradation. The villain (among villains and dissipated castoffs) is pure cliché, a sociopath who looms in the narrative without a moment's reflection or subtlety. His occasional existential mutterings are consistent with his character, if you can call it that, but he's too Tarantino for me. The cast is also pretty stereotypical, with a double dose of, pederasty, misogynistic cursing and racism. I am a great fan of maritime fiction and history, so I was eager to read this book. I cannot think that it adds to the literature, unless the exercise is to empty one's soul of feeling. The style and mythic qualities of the frozen north Atlantic recommend the book, but it can't save it.

Gruesome horror story ? Thriller ? Historical fiction ? Maybe all of them. I don't know what to make of this book. Does the the language, swearing and action really have to be so foul ? Even if this is how they behaved on whaling boats in the second half of the nineteenth century I do not believe the author needs to sprinkle the f-word as liberally as he does or go into quite such graphic descriptions of bodily mutilation and faecal functions - and malfunctions. The action moves apace but the structure of the story is left wanting by huge gaps. It's as though the author got bored and decided to just move the protagonist, Sumner who in the next chapter mysteriously is beamed to a new location. What did drive me as a reader was the action, which certainly does not lack imagination. Whether you believe such hardship is endurable or survivable, whether such brutality is a true reflection of life on board a whale boat is rendered irrelevant because the author pushes the boundaries beyond credibility, which is a pity.

A lack of likeable characters is putting it mildly. Despicable barbarous cruel men doing violence to animals and each other. It was compelling reading if only to make sure Karma would have a say in the end...

A dark, yet engaging plot, with some interesting historical background perspective. Written in a narrative style that almost feels "old fashioned," yet the plot moves rapidly and the characters are authenticlly engaging.

Not for everyone. However, very well written and unusual style.More to the liking of men rather than women as setting is brutal and raw. I found it riveting although at times it goes beyond the realm of reality. However, since it is set in the the late 1800s, who is to say what was and what wasn't.

A dark, yet engaging plot, with some interesting historical background perspective. Written in a narrative style that almost feels "old fashioned," yet the plot moves rapidly and the characters are authenticlly engaging.

Not for everyone. However, very well written and unusual style.More to the liking of men rather than women as setting is brutal and raw. I found it riveting although at times it goes beyond the realm of reality. However, since it is set in the the late 1800s, who is to say what was and what wasn't.

This is a brutal, raw, often vulgar, riveting story and exquisitely written with beautiful character development, great surprises and twists. I would recommend this book very highly if you are interested in lovely prose, so well written.

The story was at times brutal but the author knows how to just get on with it and move the reader through the tough bits quickly and matter of factly. To me, it felt very real of its time. I am so glad I saw the discussion of this book on The Book Club (Australian TV) where trusted reviewers all raved about it. Up until then I had thought I would not read it as it sounded too cruel and harsh in the reviews and synopsis. Great read.

Unusual and interesting. Excellent plot and characters. A unusual group of characters who represented a wide range of class in the mid to later part of the English 1800S. I did feel a bit let down re the ending but it was a minor letdown.

A great read but graphic in nature. There is explicit rape, multiple murders, and personal suffering, but each tells part of the whole story. I have read other graphic novels about whaling and enjoyed this one very much as well. The hardships of our tragic history of whaling and the personal toils of the men who drove it forward is well told in this novel.

Much more than a great adventure novel, this is a powerful evocation of evil, and of mankind's essential brutishness. Here too, you will discover the awesome power of nature and the insignificance of mankind in the face of the elements. No wasted words, stylishly written, this is the best book I've read since The Goldfinch.

Mr. McGuire really brought life to the characters and I was engrossed in the story until the end. Descriptions of the places and the boat were also well done. The ending was a bit different than the rest of the story and I had a little trouble with the transition. It was a very enjoyable read and I recommend it highly.

I picked this novel up from a glowing review--which, unlike so many reviews, was completely justified. McGuire writes beautiful prose and tells a frightening, compelling story about man's inhumanity to man and to nature. Excellent characterization, haunting descriptions of faraway and very forbidding places, and as many surprises as any good reader could want. A must-read.

I was uncertain whether I would like this book as it concerns whaling practices but once I started reading it I found it hard to put down. It's rather brutal in some places but told in such a way that it doesn't offend. Highly recommended.