Graham Swift’s extraordinary masterpiece—a finalist for the Booker Prize—WATERLAND weaves together eels and incest, ale-making and madness, the heartless sweep of history and a family romance as tormented as Greek tragedy into one epic story.

In the flat, watery Fen Country of East Anglia, a passionate history teacher named Tom Crick is being forced into early retirement from the school where he has taught for thirty years. When a student rebelliously questions the value of the subject to which Tom has devoted his life, Tom responds with his own personal retrospective. His story—intertwined with the stories of the local wetlands, the French Revolution, and World War II, among other things—throws light onto the dark circumstances of the current day, revealing how his wife’s tragic youth led to the events surrounding his forced retirement. A monumental tribute to the past, a gripping multigenerational family saga, and a powerful affirmation of the history of self, this exceptional novel illuminates the cycles of time in which we live.

Book Jacket Status: Jacketed

Introduction by Tim Bunding

格雷厄姆•斯威夫特，英國當代著名小說傢，1949年齣生於倫敦，自幼酷愛閱讀，自學寫作，發錶過多部長短篇作品。1983年，小說《水之鄉》為他贏得瞭布剋奬提名，並摘得《衛報》小說奬。1996年，小說《杯酒留痕》力挫群雄，奪得當年的布剋奬，以此奠定瞭他在英國文壇的重要地位。