The Well

Starred review from March 2, 2015
British author Chanter’s extraordinary first novel envisions the U.K. so ravaged by drought that personal and civic life fracture. At midlife, Ruth and Mark Ardingly leave London for a small farm in the west of England called the Well, where they cherish nature and long visits with their five-year-old grandson, Lucien, the child of their troubled daughter Angie. As drought deepens into national disaster, the Well remains inexplicably verdant. Under the pressure from local attacks, government interventions, and media uproar, the couple’s marriage collapses. Then the Sisters of the Rose, a tiny extremist sect, arrives, claiming that Ruth is the chosen one who helps bring rain and demanding the Well be cleared of men. Thousands start following their worship online. Ruth is drawn so deeply into their beliefs that she begins to have religious visions. Might she have committed a murder in a mystical state? Combining gripping mystery, nuanced psychological drama, and striking prose, this debut is a mesmerizing read. Agent: Rachel Mills, Peters Fraser & Dunlop (U.K.).

February 15, 2015

Fortysomething couple Ruth and Mark leave behind exhausting work schedules and criminal accusations in London to make a fresh start at a small farm in the English countryside. Their new home is named the Well after a mysterious water source on the property that has never run dry. As their land continues to flourish inexplicably in a country beset with a decade-long drought, the couple find themselves surrounded by hostilities once more. Ruth and Mark attempt to farm while battling with the media, angry neighbors, and devout cults come to worship the rain. Relationships, both familiar and spiritual, buckle under the tension. In the end, the pair's blessings prove fatal and they realize how much they had to lose. VERDICT This timely mix of environmental and psychological storytelling illustrates how in an era of increasing climate change ecological dramas become family dramas. This powerful novel is more emotional than political, but as a story foreshadowing a very possible future, it will strike a chord with readers of fiction and nonfiction alike. [See "Editors' Spring Picks," p. 35.--Ed.]--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

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