Summer water is definitely a winter read. It’s set in the depths of Scotland, on the longest day of the year and in appalling weather. Each set of guests is housed in old log cabins, some owned and some rented.
The setting is pretty grim with torrential rain, no phone signal or internet, a pub quite a walk away and a few shops 10 miles away. It’s an interesting observation of all the characters. I read it in the garden on a bright sunny day and wanted to be inside under a blanket drinking hot chocolate!
It was a reasonable read however I would not rush to buy it for a friend.

I really enjoyed the writing, the characters and the atmosphere. Beautifully written. Lovely sense of place and individual characters rather than cliches. Well worth reading..

Summerwater is set on a holiday lodge resort in Scotland at Mid Summer. The sort of place that people go to get back to nature - fresh air, open spaces, nature and un-crowded outdoor life. But it has been raining heavily and consistently for a while so relationships are bound to be fraught.

The novella is told through the perspectives of the residents staying at the Lodges. Parents with young children, a young couple, teenagers, an elderly ex doctor and his wife who is clearly suffering from the early stages of dementia.
The only points of view we don’t hear are those of the ‘outsiders’ - a lone and mysterious soldier camping in a tent just outside the resort and a Ukrainian family, who have been irritating the rest of the residents with loud parties every night. But those residents who are given voices all have views on these outsiders and they are mostly mistrustful and negative.

Summerwater is beautifully written and very powerful, despite there not being any ‘action’.
The relentless rain makes the everything feel so dark and claustrophobic. And highlights the often grim reality of family holidays. You have one week a year to squeeze in this enforced idea of ‘family time’ and the pressure to have this perfect time can often push it the wrong way.
One of the teenage sons in the book sums it up perfectly:
“It’s pretty weird when you think about it, all these middle-class white people coming here to have less privacy, comfort and convenience than they do at home, how’s that a holiday?“

The ending of the book is very sudden, shocking and dark. And it ends so abruptly. I was very surprised at just how abrupt the ending was and I felt slightly disappointed when I realised that there wasn’t any more story.
Nevertheless, this was a very powerful read and will stay with me for a long time.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Sarah Moss - Summerwater. I got stung by the last Sarah Moss book I read (Tidal Zone), so I was pleased that I really enjoyed this. Set in a holiday park in Scotland, this story depicts families in states of isolation as the weather and sheer boredom keep them indoors, mostly. (Apt for right now!) Though this story builds in intensity as prejudices and conflicts emerge. The crescendo of these tensions in the final scene is unsettling. Definitely worth the read. 4/5 ✨
Thank you to @netgalley for access to this ARC.

Summerwater by Sarah Moss is a deceptively slim novella that resonates and packs an emotional punch that belies its size. Set over the course of a rainy Summer weekend in a small holiday park in Scotland , the reader is introduced to a mixed bag of characters, some who own a cabin in the park, and spend their Summers there, and others who are renting, There are characters of all ages from young children to an elderly retired couple, and as the reader works through the book we see chapters from each of their perspectives. One thing that I found particularly interesting was the pairing of some chapters so that we got to see the perspectives of each member of a couple for example, or that of a pair of teenage siblings. Moss does a fantastic job of blending pathos and humour, with a poignant chapter about a man caring for his wife who is showing symptoms of the early stages of dementia juxtaposed with a chapter about a young couple's sex life that will probably resonate with many. Another highlight that showed the author's skilful way of observing the small moments of daily life was a chapter that we spend with a young mother wondering how she can best use a precious hour of child free time. Scattered amongst these chapters is some truly beautiful writing about nature and the environment, and while that could have seemed out of place in such a short book, they were actually some of my favourite passages. The ending is definitely abrupt and brutal, which I found a little jarring but not entirely unexpected, having read other books by this author.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Read in one sitting. Sarah Moss writes beautifully and I loved Ghost Wall so much I requested Summerwater. It's a novella with each chapter reading like a short story. A simple but effective way forward to a brilliant ending.
Thanks to NetGalley for my copy.

If you have ever had a wet week in a Scottish lodge you will closely identify with this novel.
A small holiday park populated by owners, families of owners and renters., trying to cope with constant rain. Each lodges occupants has a chapter, good description of family dynamics and hidden emotions.. in between chapters is a short passage on the wildlife and nature of the area, this works well
Well written and beautifully described with a good finale..

A gripping novel, full of atmosphere. Sarah Moss writes about family tensions and intimate relationships so well. A pleasure to read, as always.

This was not what i expected and i felt it was not as good as the Ghost Wall was. I did like the writing style but the story and plot was just too disjointed for me and it just needed some refining as it had the potential to be so good. I would pick up another book by Sarah Moss but this wasn't for me.

I am unsure whether to call this latest offering, by the wonderful Sarah Moss, a short novel, or a novella. It is based around a holiday park in Scotland, where a range of different people are staying in cabins that they either own, rent, or are borrowing for a holiday. However, rain pours down constantly, leaving most of those stuck inside for most of the time, often with bored and fretful youngsters. Meanwhile, there is a tent just outside the boundaries of the park, causing some disquiet, and a Ukrainian family who hold noisy parties each evening.

Moss inhabits the minds of several of those inhabiting the cabins. A retired doctor, a woman who is obsessed with running, an exhausted young mother, plus one of the most realistic, and humorous, sex scenes I have read. We get to know their dreams, their desires, their faults and their frustrations. With the foul weather, noise and boredom, the author creates a setting in which you know something will happen, but are unsure exactly what, until the end of the book.

I think this would be an excellent choice for a reading group. It is a slim read, but it explores human nature really well; the way we view others, as well as ourselves. How minor irritations become inflated when people are isolated, bored and resentful and yet how they draw together in a crisis. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

You know that feeling when you pick up a book and are swept up immediately and all life around you melts away? This is one of those books. A cast of characters living out one day in a damp, raining Scotland. The reader slowly gets to know the different lives and personalities and they are so well described, you feel you’ve met them before. The overwhelming atmosphere of the dreek, damp and soggy forest is claustrophobic and again brilliantly described. The end is abrupt, a massive full stop. I loved it.

Cleverly written. I loved the moody feeling and how they are all connected somehow. What a brilliant, beautiful, book!

When the experienced reader approaches a new Sarah Moss novel they will be expecting writing that it deeply embedded with references to the landscape. A physical and geological landscape embedded with its plants, trees, birds, beasts and insects. Recognised as all living and interrelating and portrayed in detail of description and movement. Depicted in such a way that the reader is taken back to places of experience, so that the descriptions are almost viscerally re-created with atmosphere and weather too. This novel does not fail that test. Landscapes and their elements change and evolve over time, recognising that Moss will be aware of the issues of global warming changes and impacts and subtly feeds that quietly into her descriptions. But passing time is also an important sub-text.
The place of the novel’s location is in the Trossachs area of Scotland – more specifically within a holiday centre of wooden chalets. Aging, some are still owned and occupied by their original families, others are passing down the generations and others are now let out to temporary summer visitors. The time is a few days across a very rainy summer month. By passing from one set of residents to another; a selected few with usual habits restricted by the weather conditions, will reflect their activities and experiences of their holiday through their private thoughts. With time hanging heavy some will reflect on their previous visits to the centre decades previously, some will be using the exceptional holiday times to assess their current place within their families or partnerships, and some their current dreams and desires. Moss manages to almost seamlessly pass from one to another (and occasionally back) by linking different experiences of a seemingly simple meeting of a group of the children let outside to play unsupervised. So with no obvious major incident Moss will quietly and inexorably draw the reader through the full novel. She does this without great drama, but managing nevertheless to resuscitate great reams of the reader’s holiday (and other) deeper memories from simple and almost casual references to things of the past.
A person’s memory sits across time and the life one lives now. People review their back lives through the present and also live it various expectations of the future. The speed in which life seems to pass never seems fixed either. Families link across the generations and members might reference their current lives not just to their own past, but the historic tales of their antecedents. Life is made up too of the “normal” of a flow of often quite simple actions with no great drama. Although a person’s emotional reactions at times might be more erratic or out of kilter with that basic flow.
This is a deeply compelling and addictive tale. Simple in structure, it actually is deeply resonant. With its awareness of time and the recognition that the importance of individuals - or even all people - may not be the only issue in the turning of the world, it is a deeply moral work. Paralleled to the exploration of time passing is the question of what is truly important and of course how long does it take an individual to recognise the latter. So this novel resonates even after it is “finished” and the book closed.

Summerwater is a slim novella tracking the course of a single rainy day in a Scottish holiday park. Each section—somewhere between a vignette and a short story—follows a different guest, capturing that very specific ennui of ostensibly being on holiday but it’s bucketing down.

The writing is crisp, unfussy and flows easily, with an attentive third-person limited perspective (it’s a style that reminds me: I should read more Virginia Woolf). I found that my interest in the various characters fluctuated a lot and as a result, some chapters were terrific and others tedious.

My favourite was a mother of young kids has an unexpected hour all to herself, then squanders much of it by fretting over how to best use the time. Take a bath? Cup of tea? Definitely not cleaning, that would defeat the point! Very relatable and real.

It’s probably clear, this is the sort of book where very little happens... except that there is a dramatic event right at the end, affecting the whole park. The abrupt change of tone was quite jarring, and also a reminder that there is one group of guests whose story we never hear. The book was over before I could puzzle this out. Overall, I found Summerwater to be something of a mixed bag, but I am keen read this author again.

A wonderfully atmospheric moody window into a brief moment of time, with glorious utterly, believable characterisation. Summerwater is lIke a film in slow motion, with a growing sense of trepidation as you move towards the final moments where the dreamlike quality will suddenly speed up leaving you as if woken in shock from an unnerving dream.

I absolutely loved Sarah Moss’ Ghost Wall so I was excited to read this.

I am completely in love with Sarah Moss’ writing. It is so vivid and atmospheric and character driven. Every single character was so incredibly well-realised and relatable, even in such short chapters. I also loved the thread of satire that was woven through, and some bits were actually quite funny.

This is between a 4 and a 5 for me purely because I wish it had been longer. The book seems to build and build and build but I was a tiny bit unsatisfied by the ending and wanted something a bit more. However this doesn’t negate how absolutely brilliant it was.

I completely devoured this in an afternoon. The writing hooks you in so quickly and I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to read more Sarah Moss.

Thank you so much for a review copy of this book, it was fantastic. I read Ghost Wall in one sitting as I find the pace and rhythm of Sarah Moss’s writing almost hypnotic and it’s difficult to wrench my self out of the heads of her characters.
12 lodges on a rainy, dismal caravan park, 12 different reasons for being there, all exquisitely drawn. You know something dreadful is going to happen and halfway through the book you suspect it already has, but is that just a misdirection? You won’t find out until the end, because all the narrative voices need to be heard first so you have the full picture.
Distinct character voices take their turns. Running, wandering aimlessly, scrabbling for heartbreakingly elusive memories, trying to fill a childfree hour with something other than cleaning.......mesmerising stories that seem almost banal. You tend to gravitate towards the stories that resonate with you.
The noisy disruptive lodge inhabitants are voiceless. Othered. Just why becomes stunningly clear at the end. If they were knowable, if judgements hadn’t been made then maybe things would have turned out differently.

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… It didn't tale much more than that to make this book appeal to me. Wet summer days in Scotland were part of my childhood. What Moss does with this novel is to tell us everyone's stories in this fleeting moment of time that that they are all sat coping with the weather. Some of the local wildlife get their own interludes too. The premise therefore is a simple one, but it is the execution which is the proof in the pudding. Moss is a wonderful writer, her prose is rich, her storytelling rooted in reality. These people come to life. In these brief vignettes, about marriage, depression, unfulfilled lives, teenage angst and more she give the reader enough information to want more, whilst also leaving you with a sense of foreboding. Great book from one of UK's best writers.

ARC from Netgalley

A beautifully written collection of thoughts and actions of a group of holidaymakers sharing a claustrophobic campsite in a rainy Scottish summer. The writing is so precise and so taut that you quickly become immersed in the lives of multiple characters and different perspectives as the book moves seamlessly from one character's viewpoint to another and the tension builds over a week of relentless rain and family squabbles. The shock of the ending is brutal,and so well done. Read this in awe of a writer working the height of her powers.

This is a beautifully written book and cleverly written from the different perspectives of a number of families all staying at the same Scottish log cabin park. Each narrative explores the individuals life and ups and downs but all entwine and meet together at the fateful end,

The story perfectly depicts the Scottish landscape including the endless rain. I think all the characters are perfectly relatable in their own way from the little girl to the teenage boy and to the elderly couple who have been staying in the same lodge for years. This book despite being a short story manges to explore a number of difficult issues from depression to dementia to people’s prejudices. This book isn’t a comfortable read but it is certainly a reflective read that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.