Summerwater by Sarah Moss is a novel set in Scotland that shows you how you can feel isolated yet still not alone enough. Some are given a voice to express this, while others never get the chance.
Summerwater synopsis
On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents.
A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisce about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them. One particular family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, starts to draw the attention of the others. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls.
Book review
Each family is staying in an owned, rented, or borrowed cabin in the Trossachs in Scotland. None of them find it very exciting, nor are they extremely satisfied with their lives. You read about the quiet acceptance of an elderly couple, the concessions a woman makes for a happy marriage, and the very much needed (and taken) alone time of another. They often think about things they could have done differently or a passion that is missing from their life. They all chose to spend the holiday in an isolated area, far from the crowds, but end up feeling too close to the ones they came with.
The temporary residents also watch each other as there is not much else to do. Rain doesn’t stop them from going out; most are used to it. If you let the rain stop you from doing what you like, then you’re missing out on making the most of your time in Scotland, where it often rains.
Just like the guests watch each other, kids watch and copy everyone. You can see it in how they treat ‘foreigners’. Those very people that you want to know more about, but aren’t given their own voice in Summerwater. Instead, they play music, until it stops and they are silent once again.Â
“Under the hedges, in the hollows of tall trees, birds droop and wilt, grounded, waiting. Small creatures in their burrows nose the air and stay hungry. There will be deaths by morning.” The chapters about people are intertwined with those about animals and nature. The animals sense what’s coming first. From them you get a foreboding, a warning that the reader understands but the narrators do not.
I’m not very fond of this book. The potential is there, but I couldn’t bond with most of the narrators. Their parts are too short and too much in the now to get to know them well. For me this was very unlike how I perceived And the Wind Sees All, a book set in Iceland that also gives a voice to many different narrators.Â
I’m not saying the narrators in Summerwater don’t have their charm; the situations and struggles are very realistic, just that the combination of the format of the story, the personalities of the narrators, and the thoughts of the narrators didn’t work for me.Â
Interested?
Pre-order your copy of Summerwater from Amazon (available 20 August 2020).
Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
