The North Water by Ian McGuire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“The North Water,” by Ian McGuire, was published in 2016. The novel received a good bit of buzz, including making the lists for the Man Booker prize, LA Times Book Prize 2017, and the NY Times Top Ten Notable books. The buzz is deserved; I thoroughly enjoyed this dark novel. But before the reader dives in, let me offer a word of caution. If the reader is expecting a bold, clean, historical adventure novel, my advice would be to run far, far away.

The waters in this story are not just in the North, not just cold, but very dark as well. McGuire dives fearlessly into his characters, some of whom are likely to repulse the reader. This is a rough tale, not in the writing, but in the tale itself. The tale unfolds on a whaling ship crewed by hard men in hard times. Our protagonist thinks this whaling ship will be a good place to hide from a past disgrace. He will find himself to be very, very wrong. Whaling is a dangerous occupation to begin with. When the crew of the whaling ship includes a heartless murderer, it is very dangerous indeed.

“The North Water” is, indeed, a historical adventure novel. But it is a very dark adventure, populated with some repellent and obscene characters. The story arcs across the stage of arctic water and ice, all the while getting grimmer and grimmer. If you love a dark tale, well-written and well-told, this is the novel for you.

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And, in a quick pause for the cause…

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