The Well

by Catherine Chanter

LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

AN OBSERVER NEW FACE OF FICTION 2015
A HUFFINGTON POST 'ONE TO WATCH IN 2015'
NAMED AN INDEPENDENT '10 BEST SUMMER READS'

'I was gripped by Catherine Chanter's The Well immediately. The beauty of her prose is riveting, the imagery so assured. This is an astonishing debut' Sarah Winman, author of When God was a Rabbit

'I loved this book!' JESSIE BURTON, author of The Miniaturist

'One summer was all it took before our dream started to curl at the edges and stain like picked primroses. One night is enough to swallow a lifetime of lives.'

When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London in their grime-encrusted car and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place, a farm that appears to offer everything the family are searching for. An opportunity for Ruth. An escape for Mark. A home for their grandson Lucien.

But The Well's unique glory comes at a terrible price. The locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours' produce withers and dies. Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth is less and less sure who she can trust.

As The Well envelops them, Ruth's paradise becomes a prison, Mark's dream a recurring nightmare, and Lucien's playground a grave.

• ISBN10: 1782113606
• ISBN13: 9781782113607
• Publish Date: 5 March 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 15 June 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Canongate Books
• Edition: Main
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Fond Of

The Well was a very interesting novel and with a water source being the focus and reminded me of Marcel Pagnol's Jean de Florette with both stories ending with drastic consequences.

The author kept this reader in suspense to learn what happened to Ruth's grandson and for that reason was a quick read

All the characters were off beat and just a tad crazy. Although they were filled with powerful emotion coming to life before one's eye.

Not Fond Of

All the Sisters, particularly Amelia annoyed me and in turn Ruth,I really wanted her to wake up, smell the coffee, and realize how crazy these women were.


Final Thoughts
Catherine Chanter's novel was a unique and different read for me. Even though I was vexed by the sisters and their cult-like religion I found The Well to be well paced and a stand up read.

[Lianne]

I received an ARC of this novel courtesy of the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This review in its entirety was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2015/05/12/review-the-well/

The Well was a curious novel, the unravelling of the story slow and setting up Ruth’s story through memories and dealing with the present time (why was she under house arrest? Why did Mark lose his job? What happened to Lucien exactly?). It’s hard to explain my feelings about this novel, but it does do a good job in setting up the eerie and strange atmosphere of the story; it wasn’t what I expected. I was also expecting the fanaticism to balance out with the everyday/political/social concerns about The Well but I was surprised that the Sisters of the Rose really slipped in and became such a major part of Ruth’s life. Their presence added to the very eerie and tense atmosphere of the novel, wedging into Ruth’s life and unbalancing her already-fragile relationships further away, isolating Ruth even more.

Despite of the set-up of the story and the thematic elements of it, I found myself not really caring for the characters. I’m not sure if it’s because of the set-up of the story or how the narrative indulges a bit too much into Ruth’s memory, or the creepy nature of the Sisters and how they found their way into Ruth’s life, but I just wanted to know what happened to Lucien. The apocalyptic element of the setting also was a bit of a letdown; you know that there’s a major water shortage going on and there’s all these government policies and announcements mentioned in passing, but the Well is just so isolating, I never really got that sense of place.

Overall, The Well was an interesting read, though it wasn’t quite what I was expecting and in the end not quite the read I would’ve checked out. Nonetheless the structure of the storytelling was interesting and the question of what happened to Lucien and what led to Ruth’s house arrest kept me around to the end.