Groundwater with Thomas McMullan

Join us for an evening with local award winning author, Thomas McMullan, to celebrate the launch of his latest novel, Groundwater. 

Thomas will be in coversation with writer and curator Tom Morton, and will also answer questions as well as signing his work.

About Groundwater:

By the winner of the Betty Trask Prize – an atmospheric and powerfully menacing story about family, secrets and violence

'Groundwater masterfully and subtly begins to re-enchant all that we have reduced' Amber Husain
'A masterful portrait of the fractious, shimmering webs underneath our not-so ordinary lives' Sophie Mackintosh
'This is a novel that gets right under your skin' Ella Frears

John and Liz have left the city behind to move to a remote house on the shores of the lake. Though the house is barely unpacked, Liz's sister, with her children and her husband, have come to visit for the August bank holiday weekend.

Over the course of a hot, slow weekend, tensions simmer; things go unsaid – between the two couples, between the two sisters. Their time together is punctured by visits from Jim, the solitary local warden for the area; and a group of students camping nearby draw closer and closer, finally infiltrating the house – and bringing their own tensions and hierarchies with them.

As the weekend draws to a close, the landscape reveals a violence that has long lain hidden – and the summer builds to its harrowing climax.

Taut and menacing, full of disquiet and tenderness, Groundwater is about the gulfs that lies between us and those we love – and the miraculous ways our deepest desires and fears manifest.

Thomas McMullan's debut novel, The Last Good Man, won the 2021 Betty Trask Prize. His short fiction has been published in Ploughshares, The Dublin Review, Granta, 3:AM Magazine, Lighthouse and Best British Short Stories, and his journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, frieze, ArtReview and BBC News.


Tickets includes a copy of Groundwater and a refreshment. The event will start at 6.30pm on the 23rd July.