The North Water
Patrick Sumner is a disgraced Irish surgeon who signs on as ship's medic for the Volunteer, a whaling vessel sailing from Hull into the Arctic in 1859. Among the crew is Henry Drax, a harpooner whose violence has no moral floor and whose presence onboard begins to unmake the voyage one body at a time. As the whaling season collapses and the ship gets caught in the ice, Sumner discovers that the captain has secretly insured the Volunteer for a wreck, and Drax becomes the only force still moving with purpose. McGuire writes in a sparse, biblical register that earned the book a Booker longlist and constant Blood Meridian comparisons.
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The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A disgraced Irish surgeon and a brutal harpooner clash aboard a doomed 1859 Arctic whaling ship in this McCarthy-adjacent literary thriller.
Yes. BBC and AMC produced a 2021 five-part adaptation starring Colin Farrell. The show follows the novel's premise of a 19th-century whaling expedition turning violent.
The North Water is short (around 250 pages) but unrelentingly violent and bleak. The 19th-century maritime detail is dense. Most readers find the prose propulsive once they accept the brutality.
The North Water was written by Ian McGuire, published in 2016 by Simon & Schuster, Limited.
The North Water is 352 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The North Water takes most readers 5 to 8 hours to finish.
The North Water is a standalone novel by Ian McGuire, not part of a series.
The North Water is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
