The Well
Catherine Chanter
Available as Paperback, eBook
‘I loved this book’ JESSIE BURTON
AN AUTUMN 2015 RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB READ
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB READ
AN OBSERVER NEW FACE OF FICTION 2015
A HUFFINGTON POST ‘ONE TO WATCH IN 2015’
LONGLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2015
‘I was gripped by Catherine Chanter’s The Well immediately. The beauty of her prose is riveting, the imagery so assured. This is an astonishing debut’ Sarah Winman, author of When God was a Rabbit
‘I loved this book!’ JESSIE BURTON, author of The Miniaturist
When Ruth Ardingly and her family first drive up from London in their grime-encrusted car and view The Well, they are enchanted by a jewel of a place, a farm that appears to offer everything the family are searching for. An opportunity for Ruth. An escape for Mark. A home for their grandson Lucien.
But The Well’s unique glory comes at a terrible price. The locals suspect foul play in its verdant fields and drooping fruit trees, and Ruth becomes increasingly isolated as she struggles to explain why her land flourishes whilst her neighbours’ produce withers and dies. Fearful of envious locals and suspicious of those who seem to be offering help, Ruth is less and less sure who she can trust.
As The Well envelops them, Ruth’s paradise becomes a prison, Mark’s dream a recurring nightmare, and Lucien’s playground a grave.
“This story ripples with mystery and intrigue from the first page”
daily Mail
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“A markedly assured new voice … a novel of increasing psychological suspense … its story and narrative will put many readers under a deliciously shivery spell”
sunday Telegraph
“A drought-ridden, riot-threatened country; a sinister religious cult; a child’s unsolved murder; and a culture of surveillance. Catherine Chanter’s first novel has the ingredients of a dystopian nightmare, yet it’s more … a literary page-turner”
independent
“This accomplished debut is both a futuristic evocation of a Big Brother society and an Ibsenite fable of humans faced with limited resources”
observer
“A haunting novel about ordinary people confronted by extraordinary situations”
elle
Catherine Chanter
Catherine Chanter was born and raised in the West Country. She has written for Radio Four and has had short stories and poetry published in a wide range of anthologies and publications. She won the Yeovil Poetry Prize in 2010. Catherine has a Masters, with distinction, in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University. The Well, her first novel, won the 2013 Lucy Cavendish Prize for Unpublished Fiction and was longlisted for the 2015 CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger.
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“This is a debut novel and it’s an intense psychological, even apocalyptic thriller. But Chanter is also a poet, and the way she writes is graceful, evocative and emotional.”
Judy Finnigan
WH Smith Blog
Watch Catherine Chanter talking about her debut novel The Well