Summerwater is an evocative series of vignettes, taking place over the course of one rainy day at a holiday camp in the Trossachs.

It's claustrophic and immersive, with each character's stream of consciousness narration blending seamlessly into the next. But Moss still manages to retain their distinctive voices, and the changes in perceptions allow for some sharp, emotionally-intelligent insights. There is not much of a conventional plot, but the story is cleverly structured, the underlying tension building with every chapter. You get the sense that each line is perfectly weighted.

This is undoubtedly a novella that hits a bit different during lockdown, and reading it while stuck at home on a grey day was an entirely immersive experience. Summerwater is intense and atmospheric, the perfect book for a rainy day.

I'm furious about how good Sarah Moss is. Summerwater is a deceptively slender, taut novel, coalescing over the course of a single day at a holiday park in the Trossachs, and it is by turns gentle and mean and funny and devastating. The prose is precise and finely calibrated, the authorial eye empathetic and unsparing, and the novel a small and unexpectedly capacious marvel that makes a neat hairpin turn into being a perfect, horrible little horror movie in the last sliver. Read it!

Summerwater is a short, but atmospheric novel, set during a rainy summer in a small holiday park next to a loch in the Trossachs. There’s no mobile phone signal, and most of the holidaymakers are damply bored, yet somehow the novel’s glimpses into their inner monologues is fascinating. Each character is drawn so well, it feels like I know them and recognise them. The oppressive frustrations build until the book ends with a sudden catastrophe.

The writing was beautiful and having enjoyed the author’s novel Ghost Wall previously, I will definitely look out for more of her work.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I absolutely loved the writing in Summerwater. The book, which is set over a day, was very cleverly written - multiple viewpoints can be difficult to connect with but it's so well done here that you can easily feel immersed into each character. Really lovely details in every single piece, from the woman out running to the teenage daughter, and elderly man - all of the characters were well developed in such a short space. The landscape and weather are beautifully described, and the story builds and builds to the unexpected and devastating ending. Thanks so much for the read - I'll be buying everything by Sarah Moss in the future.

Set in a holiday park of lodges, in northern Scotland, surrounding a loch, Summerwater is a collection of the different holiday makers thoughts on a particular day. It’s not your typical story as such, in that most of them are disconnected from the others, yet they are all connected- all in the same space, often glancing out of the window and spotting one another. It’s constantly raining so they can’t or don’t want to go out as much either, so they are mostly in the lodges, so the focus is very much on relationships, with ourselves, family and friends. We even hear from a fox, bats and vixen. It’s apparent that global warming and Brexit are further along, and the economy down, I viewed this as being set a few years into the future, and it showed how less tolerant of others that people had become too.

Big fan of Sarah Moss after reading Ghost Wall last year and Summerwater didn’t disappoint. As expected it was incredibly dark and ominous writing but so rich and engrossing in its descriptions. My favourite chapter was the teenage boy getting stuck canoeing - so immersive and claustrophobic at times. I didn’t feel overwhelmed by the multiple character stories, which I normally do in novels. All the observations on human nature were really spot on. No doubt this will be a success in August.

Summerwater is a series of short vignettes which each explore the interior thoughts of characters who are all spending a summer holiday in flats set around the same Scottish lake. I enjoyed Moss's writing as always and the concept was an appealing one, I love writing which explores the weird feelings and pressures of a holiday where you are thrown together with family and all making amusing or silly observations about your various holiday village co-habitants.

But against a backdrop of chilly, wet and stormy weather battering the lake the characters' inner turmoils, prejudices and angst rises quickly to the surface and this becomes what also seems to connect them as a central thread running through the novel. They project this onto first the children or partners who they now are trapped inside un-homely holiday cabins with and then the other people on the holiday camp =. the weird old couple, the mum out jogging in leggings thought to be too revealing of her figure, the rude Bulgarians having late night parties,

Ultimately I found this a difficult book to love because the characters were self-obsessed, miserable and had horrible thoughts about other people. Maybe this was the point, and maybe I missed a deep strain of dark humour running through the text (possibly my mindset in lockdown, possibly one to return to on a future wet Scottish weekend).

In ‘Summerwater’ Sarah Moss takes readers to an idyllic Scottish holiday place  near a lake for apart of a day. There are 12 people in different cabins living and who are all reconciled but differently,  to the fact that the constant rain is playing spoilsport to their holiday plans. Cooped inside, the scenes play out mostly in the mind of the characters we read about, giving us everyday like scenes that happens to people:one half of an engaged couple looking at domesticity, sexual fantasies and notions of being truthful; an older couple mulling over the changes that life brings; a mother worn out from housework and motherhood; a parent - teen age angst play out and so on.

The lack of a conventional plot, the way the author takes readers into the thoughts of a few selected characters make you feel like you are missing out on the larger picture but in reality, the device works so well for one sees the way each character’s thoughts are almost meditative, some cruel, some alarming. 

Summerwater is nothing like I have read! A rather short book, the word flow is like raindrops…a constant pitter-patter that keeps on assailing your senses – in the wetness, the sound. It is not so much a story or plot as it is about isolated lives living in a common situation, how they are disconnected and yet connected by the same and different things. If you love words and how they flow to build something wondrous and different, this is the book for you.

Set over the course of one day, this is a collection of seemingly unrelated snippets of the lives of different holiday makers in a lochside holiday park in Scotland. It's a miserable, rainy day and everyone is stuck inside - families with children of varying ages and levels of enjoyment in their choice of holiday destination, an elderly couple who have spent every summer in their lodge, grumpy teenagers and raucous party animals disturbing the peace. Interspersed with these slices of human life are vignettes of the nature around them and how it is effected by the persistent rain. It is really unclear where this book is going until it gets there - but no spoilers as it would be a tragedy to ruin this book. What I will say is that I was left a bit shellshocked... I've never read Sarah Moss before, but I definitely want to read more. Her writing style is really great, there is almost something of a social commentary going on in this book and she is so good at capturing nuance. This is a quick but powerful read.

I thought the writing was lovely, especially the descriptions of the nature & surrounding which were evocative.
However I just didn't like any of the characters, maybe that was the point?

I thought the climax / ending just felt rushed. For me too much focus on the mundane thoughts of the characters. I would've enjoyed the book more if there was less of this & more about the fall out from the final scene

Summerwater, the latest book by Sarah Moss, takes place in a cabin park in the Scottish Highlands during a wet, rainy, summer day. Throughout the story, we meet and follow 12 characters, all of them absorbed in their own middle-class, relatively privileged, thoughts, All of the characters are too trapped by their routines, by their (occasionally) petty everyday worries, to care about each other. To look beyond their cabins. To share their stories, To communicate with each other. Until tragedy strikes.

Moss's writing style brings to life each character distinctively. Each of them with a different voice. All of them incredibly normal and unique at the same time. This short book explores the different forms of motherhood, of ageing, of being a teenager, of approaching sex. None of the characters, however, is interesting enough for me to be fully gripped by the story, especially when tragedy strikes. And, in fairness, tragedy strikes too quickly, in a matter of a few pages, with the ending feeling too rushed.

Excellent, atmospheric novel set by a Scottish loch where unrelated families are trying to make the most of a rainy summer holiday. It's both funny, realistic and also imbued with impending tragedy. The ending is so unexpected it takes your breath away. I enjoyed Sarah Moss's previous novella, Ghost Wall and although completely different there are similarities in tone and setting. Highly recommended.

The book is set in a cabin park near a loch in Scotland. The book unfolds through the internal voices of the people who are visiting the cabins on holiday either as couples or as families with children. The story unfolds over a day and it is through the individual characters that one learns about their lives and struggles. The backdrop is the incessant rain and the presence of the loch. From the start there is a sense that something will go wrong and the tension slowly builds as strangers appear and create disruption and disturbance.

The book is very descriptive both of the landscape and the internal thoughts of each of the characters. The book draws you in and is a fluent read but all the time there is a growing sense of menace and disquiet. Moss is masterful in building up the tension and raising leads that disappear with the beating down of the rain.

An excellent read and a beautifully written book.

It never rains but it pours. Sarah Moss is a master of character and atmosphere and Summerwater is no exception. Like Ghost Wall it is seething with tension as she lets us into the innermost thoughts of a series of characters, all holidaying on the banks of a rainy Scottish loch. The characters throb with resentment and boredom in the wilderness, reflecting on their lives and relationships, making assumptions about one another as they glimpse temporary neighbour through the mist and rain. She makes the most of a setting that is wild and isolated and the claustrophobia intensifies the gnawing frustration that is so clear in the internal monologues. These monologues are one of the things she does best, revealing complex and contradictory personalities full of conflicting actions and opinions. Moss writes people brilliantly in all their darkness and light and the tension is on a steady rise as relationships fray and people pass judgement until the final dramatic conclusion.

Having a couple of Sarah Moss novels languishing near the bottom of my TBR pile for some time now was all the persuading I needed to read an advance copy of Summerwater.

It’s summer, it’s Scotland, it’s raining and the story takes place over 24 hours. At first I didn’t quite understand what was going on and thought ‘oh no not stream of consciousness’ but … within a paragraph or two I was hooked. The narrative is so real and honest. From the mother who is obsessed with exercise as a way of escaping her family, the sexually engaged young woman whose mind keeps wandering during the act, the young man who puts his life at risk to the elderly couple who travel to a well visited favourite spot only to do their own thing when they get there. I found myself chuckling away at various spot-on behavioural observations. I’m not overly enamoured with lengthy detailed descriptions of nature and landscapes but there is just enough between each character narrative to give us pause from the interiority of the characters. It soon becomes clear that solitude and escape is what ties all these vividly drawn characters and scenes together. You also very quickly realise that something terrible is going to happen and the need to discover what it is makes this compulsive reading.

This short novel is emotionally intelligent and very evocative of the darker, more hidden desires and feelings of individuals. I absolutely loved it and will now move my Sarah Moss tbr pile nearer the top.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for my ARC

Sarah Moss' Summerwater is set in a gloomy holiday park in Scotland. We follow the narratives of at least 12 of the holidaymakers and their experiences throughout one torrentially wet day, when most of them are confined to their cabins.

The narrators range from small children to the elderly and the author writes them all extremely well and makes them entirely believable.

We see different parts of the day from different people's perspectives and it's really interesting to fit all of these people together amongst their own families and others as you get further in.

The conclusion is brilliant and so unexpected. It's an interesting flip on the villain/s of the piece and indeed, the perpetrator and explanation is very subtle. You have to have been paying attention!

Such an atmospheric book that sneaks up on you. Definitely one to read on a rainy day, but even if you're reading on a beach you'll feel the cold and wet!

About 95% of what I read falls into crime/mystery/thriller categories but there are exceptions to this rule. After reading Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss I've been keen to read some of her fiction and was lucky to be approved to read Summerwater on NetGalley.

It's around midsummer on a dated Scottish holiday park and the occupants of the loch side cabins are trapped by the torrential (but perhaps not unexpected) rain in the isolated location. Over 24 hours we get an insight into the lives of the holiday makers - from the early morning runner to the retired doctor.

As the day progresses the point of view switches between many different occupants, with a diverse range of ages and points of view. These snapshots take the form of something akin to a 'stream of consciousness'. Despite this format, which doesn't particularly lend itself to a more literary style, the writing is spot on - funny, graphic, dark but all well-observed and with excellent insight - in these brief sections we really get an understanding of the characters. The inner monologues add a feeling of pace despite there being little action, although as I read crime fiction a lot I was perhaps more open to the darker undertones.

Woven into these lives are points of view that reflect the breadth of the political spectrum, giving a real reflection on the mix of people you could come across, I do wonder if this might feel dated quite quickly. Reading this during the early part of 2020, when we're all isolated, I can see a number of parallels between real life and fiction - as we're all trapped in our homes and keeping an eye on our neighbours!

This is short read at around 150 pages but without any preamble it packs in a wealth of variety and leads to a surprising climax. Well worth a read - I look forward to getting my hands on a hardcopy when it's published.

I absolutely loved this short, wonderfully written novel (can Sarah Moss even disappoint me?), but it's hard to describe what kind of book it really is. Sure, it's about 12 people on holiday in a a Scottish cabin park, being more or less isolated because of the continuing downpour. And it's about thinking, thoughts, inner life. The style is beautiful as well. This novel may be hard to sell though. I do hope I'll be able to handsell this title!
Thank you Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the ARC.

I read this during the first days of the pandemic lock down and it perfectly matched what was happening with the world.
This tells the stories of individuals taking a holiday on a camp in Scotland. It's raining and each section focusses on a different character.
They are all in turn interested and judgemental about the other families.
The book shows a post Brexit Britain where the non British family are regarded with suspicion and almost hate.
I enjoyed the book as I have travelled to this area of Scotland and found it very reminiscent of past holidays of I have taken.

There are echoes here of ‘Ghost Wall’, Sarah Moss’ previous novel, with a group of people of varying ages and backgrounds, family and relationships brought together in an isolated setting, with its tensions and claustrophobia heightening as the days go by. There is less action here, though, and the fairly insubstantial story is told in a series of inner narratives from each of the characters, holed up in a Scottish holiday park in the pouring rain. Each of them yearns to escape the others, to be on their own for a while, and the author has a great skill for writing the thought processes of a teenager or a child, for example, or the partners in a long marriage or a new sexually-charged relationship. I enjoyed all of this well enough, the different voices punctuated by short snapshots of the natural world outside, and it stopped just short of going on too long. There is an underlying sinister feel to their observations - you just know something terrible is going to happen but the pointers could lead in any number of directions. What does happen was not what I expected and, dare I say it, something of a disappointment given the alternative endings I had imagined.

A pale shadow of ‘Ghost Wall’ and other novels I have enjoyed by this author, not one I would particularly recommend to new readers of Sarah Moss’ work.