The Well - Catherine Chanter

Simon & Schuster, 2015.

Five Stars

I loved the atmosphere of this novel. It was dark and sinister and I felt like I couldn’t trust the narrator to tell me what was really going on – best of all, she couldn’t trust herself. I appreciate that the author didn’t spoon-feed any information to me as a reader. Having to slowly piece together the mystery added to the ominous feeling that hovered like a raincloud over this story of drought and disaster.

Ruth Ardingly and her husband Mark decide to start a new life at the Well, a rural property in the United Kingdom. They leave London to escape accusations against Mark, but end up becoming further ostracized by their new community. For unexplained reasons, the Well is one of the only properties in the U.K. that still has water, and the Ardinglys are held accountable for this mystery. They serve as scapegoats as the drought that is destroying the U.K. escalates for the next two years, sparing their farm. Meanwhile, their relative physical comfort is contrasted with issues that may destroy their marriage and ultimately their family.

We enter the story after the events of the drought, including the arrival of a fanatic religious sect that leads to an act of unthinkable violence, and ends with Ruth’s house arrest at the Well. As Ruth struggles with her memories, the reader is led down a dark trail made all the more forbidding with the uncertainty of who to trust: Ruth, Mark, the religious Sisters of the Rose – any one of them could be responsible for the crime Ruth is charged with. Like Ruth, we are limited by her lack of knowledge of the outside world, which makes it easy to understand her frustrations and her motivations.

Aside from the personal relationships, there is the issue of the drought. It is a mix of modern ecological disaster – so believable that it is hard to even be shocked by the extremity of the drought – and threatening religious undertones – sort of a reverse Noah’s Ark where life remains only where there is water. The characters at the Well show a range of fairly realistic reactions to the impending apocalypse, from optimistic religious fervour to ambivalent denial. The novel also hints at the powers taken by government agencies during times of emergency, mocking the bureaucracy that takes advantage of people’s fears in order to exert control.

The story of the Well was extraordinary in its portrayal of disastrous events made ordinary, as well as the individuals who live through these disasters, both personal and on a global scale. Beautiful, believable and hauntingly prescient.

I received this book for free through Simon & Schuster and Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review.