''The North Water'' is a 2016 novel by English author and academic

Ian McGuire Ian McGuire (born 1964) is an English author and academic. In 1996 he joined the University of Manchester as a lecturer in American Literature and later lectured in Creative Writing. He was co-director of the Centre for New Writing and is current ...

. McGuire's focus of study and field of interest is American

realist literature Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...

which is defined as, "...the faithful representation of reality" ''The Guardian'' reviewer writes, "The strength of ''The North Water'' lies in its well-researched detail and persuasive descriptions of the cold, violence, cruelty and the raw, bloody business of whale-killing." The headline of the ''Independent Book Review'' "Ian McGuire, The North Water: 'Subtle as a harpoon in the head, but totally gripping', book review" reinforces the realist aspect of the writing. ''The North Water'' was published by

Henry Holt and Company Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. Currently, the company publishes in the fields ...

(USA) and

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

(UK)/ Scribner (UK).

Plot

The north water of the title is the

North Water Polynya The North Water Polynya, or ''Pikialasorsuaq'' to Inuit in Greenland and ''Sarvarjuaq'' to Inuit in Canada (NOW), is a polynya (area of year-round open water surrounded by sea ice) that lies between Greenland and Canada in northern Baffin Bay ...

, to which ships sail in the hunt and kill whales. The novel opens in Hull where the industry is under threat with paraffin and coal oil replacing whale oil. We meet Henry Drax a harpooner who rapes and kills a child, "... a brute, a vacuum into which men and boys are sucked and do not emerge alive". Joining as ships doctor is Irishman Patrick Sumner a disgraced former British army surgeon with a murky past in India. They set sail on the ''Volunteer'' under Captain Brownlee who lost his last ship and crew; in league with the owner Baxter, he intends to scuttle the ''Volunteer'' in an insurance scam.

Awards and honours

*2016

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

, longlisted. *2016

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

10 Best Books of 2016 *2016 Shortlisted

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

Mystery/Thriller *2016 On the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

list of Best Books of the Year *2017

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

Encore Award The £10,000 Encore Award for the best second novel was first awarded in 1990. It is sponsored by Lucy Astor. The award fills a niche in the catalogue of literary prizes by celebrating the achievement of outstanding second novels, often neglecte ...

Television adaptation

''The North Water'' has been adapted into a

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

five-part

television serial In television and radio programming, a serial is a show that has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the complete run of ...

. It premiered on July 15, 2021 on AMC+ (USA). In the UK ''The North Water'' will air autumn 2021 on

and

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

. It stars

Colin Farrell Colin James Farrell (; born 31 May 1976) is an Irish actor. A leading man in projects across various genres in both blockbuster and independent films since the 2000s, he has received numerous accolades including a Golden Globe Award. ''The I ...

as Henry Drax,

Jack O'Connell Jack O'Connell may refer to: * Jack O'Connell (actor) (born 1990), English actor * Jack O'Connell (Australian politician) (1903–1972), member of the Victorian Legislative Council * Jack O'Connell (diplomat) (1921–2010), American diplomat and C ...

as Patrick Sumner,

Stephen Graham Stephen Joseph Graham (born 3 August 1973) is a British actor. He is best known for playing Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film ''This Is England'' (2006) and its television sequels ''This Is England '86'' (2010), '' This Is England '88'' ( ...

as Captain Brownlee, and

Tom Courtenay Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay (; born 25 February 1937) is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Courtenay achieved prominence in the 1960s with a series of acclaimed film roles, including ''The Loneliness of t ...

as Baxter. Commissioned by the BBC, ''The North Water'' is made by See-Saw Films for the BBC and is adapted and directed by

Andrew Haigh Andrew Haigh (; born 7 March 1973) is a British filmmaker. Early life Haigh was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. He read History at Newcastle University. Career Haigh worked as an assistant editor on films such as ''Gladiator (200 ...

. Executive producers are Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta,

Iain Canning Iain Canning is an English film and television producer best known for producing the film ''The King's Speech'' (2010), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA award for Best Film and Best British Film, and for execut ...

and

Emile Sherman Emile Sherman is an Australian film and television producer best known for producing the film ''The King's Speech'' (2010), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Picture and the BAFTA award for Best Film and Best British Film, and for exe ...

for

See-Saw Films See-Saw Films is a British-Australian film and television production company founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, with offices in London and Sydney. Their productions include ''The King's Speech'', ''Top Of The Lake'', ''Lion'', ' ...

Niv Fichman Niv Fichman ( he, ניב פיכמן; born 1958) is an Israeli Canadian, Israeli-Canadian film producer, actor and director. Some of the films he has produced include ''Passchendaele (film), Passchendaele'', ''Blindness (2008 film), Blindness'', ...

for

Rhombus Media Rhombus Media is a film and television production company formed in 1978 at the York University Film Department by Barbara Willis Sweete and Niv Fichman, and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Larry Weinstein joined soon after. Rhombus Media d ...

, and Jo McClellan for the BBC. The series was produced by Kate Ogborn. ''The North Water'' is distributed internationally by

BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...

References

External links

* 2016 British novels Whaling Novels set on ships British novels adapted into television shows Charles Scribner's Sons books {{2010s-novel-stub