Set in the bleak Fen Country of East Anglia, and spanning some 240 years
in the lives of its haunted narrator and his ancestors, Waterland is
a book that takes in eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the
heartless sweep of history and a family romance as tormented as any in
Greek tragedy.
"Waterland, like the Hardy novels, carries with all else a profound
knowledge of a people, a place, and their interweaving.... Swift tells
his tale with wonderful contemporary verve and verbal felicity.... A
fine and original work."--Los Angeles Times