Still Water by Rebecca Pert

A visceral, eerie and compelling book. From the very beginning I knew that this was something special.

An unusual setting in the Shetland Islands, the landscape is portrayed in a haunting form, evoking foreboding from the ground to the sky. The main character working in a fish processing factory adds a chilling and grotesque element.

The story is about a woman who is content with her life despite living under a cloud of past trauma. The distress and anxiety is reignited when something is found in a flooded quarry. This is all revealed gradually as she reads her mother's diaries that tell of her meeting her father, getting married, having children and moving to the Shetland Islands as well as other disturbing issues. Told from only these two perspectives, it is an intimate and challenging account.

Expertly and beautifully written, the reader sits under a chill until the end. Feeling exposed and raw from this journey, I'm waiting for the next book from this new writer. Recommended for those who like courageous and resolute novels.

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Published by The Borough Press on 23 June 2022.
Advanced review copy supplied by the publisher.