Graham Swift's extraordinary masterpiece--a finalist for the Booker
Prize--WATERLAND weaves together eels and incest, ale-making and
madness, the heartless sweep of history and a family romance as
tormented as Greek tragedy into one epic story.
In the flat, watery Fen Country of East Anglia, a passionate history
teacher named Tom Crick is being forced into early retirement from the
school where he has taught for thirty years. When a student rebelliously
questions the value of the subject to which Tom has devoted his life,
Tom responds with his own personal retrospective. His story--intertwined
with the stories of the local wetlands, the French Revolution, and World
War II, among other things--throws light onto the dark circumstances of
the current day, revealing how his wife's tragic youth led to the events
surrounding his forced retirement. A monumental tribute to the past, a
gripping multigenerational family saga, and a powerful affirmation of
the history of self, this exceptional novel illuminates the cycles of
time in which we live.
Introduction by Tim Bunding