"A fast-paced, gripping story set in a world of gruesome violence and perversity, where 'why?' is not a question and murder happens on a whim: but where a very faint ray of grace and hope lights up the landscape of salt and blood and ice. A tour de force of narrative tension and a masterful reconstruction of a lost world that seems to exist at the limits of the human imagination." —Hilary Mantel

“This is a novel that takes us to the limits of flesh and blood. Utterly convincing and compelling, remorselessly vivid, and insidiously witty, The North Water is a startling achievement.” —Martin Amis

A nineteenth-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp, and highly original tale that grips like a thriller.

Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.

In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: who will survive until spring?

With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.

[英]伊恩·麥奎爾（Ian McGuire）

成長於英國赫爾市，畢業於曼徹斯特大學和弗吉尼亞大學，是曼徹斯特大學創意寫作中心的創始人兼副院長。小說曾發錶於《芝加哥評論》《巴黎評論》等。他的首部小說是《難以置信的身體》（Incredible Bodies）。《北海鯨夢》是伊恩・麥奎爾的第二本小說，他擅長描寫聲音和氣味，不論是捕鯨獵熊、開刀驗屍，以及船員的南腔北調，都讓人身臨其境，寫實程度不輸給奧斯卡大贏傢《荒野獵人》。