Happy Publication Day to RESERVOIR 13

From the booksellers who love it.

You probably don’t need us to tell you that booksellers are the best. For any weather, mood, problem, or life milestone, they’re at the ready with the perfect book recommendation.

Which is why, more than any of the accolades it’s received over the past few months (Man Booker Prize longlist! Starred and boxed Publishers Weekly review!), the thing we’re most proud of is the way booksellers have backed Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor, in stores today. This is a book about a place, the people in it, and the echoing effects of a shocking event that takes place there. Since they have such lovely things to say about it, we’ll let the booksellers themselves weigh in. (Your local bookseller might have thoughts on it, too; go ask them!)

“To read Jon McGregor’s novel Reservoir 13 is to read a thousand tiny poems in quick succession. In fragments and glimpses of a small village in England, McGregor brilliantly contrasts the urgency of life with the banality of living. As the seasons progress and relationships ebb and flow, Reservoir 13’s lyrical prose and pulsing rhythms combine to make these ordinary stories extraordinary.” —David Enyeart, Common Good Books (St. Paul, MN)

“Jon McGregor’s magnificent feat of storytelling takes readers through 13 years of life in a small English village, starting with the disappearance of a teenage visitor. The cycles of the natural world—bird migration, lambing season, bat hibernation, the ebb and flow of the river—repeat and reverberate through the community. The locals age, have affairs, raise children, care for one another, and learn to live with a legacy of unexplained loss. A beautiful portrait of humanity told in crystalline glimpses of everyday life.” —Annie Metcalf, Magers & Quinn Booksellers (Minneapolis, MN)

“Imagine if The News From Lake Woebegone wasn’t so trite, so sentimental, and was therefore a little more human, a little more messy. In Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor gives us a view of an English village and everything that makes it up. He tells the story in an unrelenting but beautiful prose, and switches smoothly between characters, weather reports, descriptions of the life cycle of forest creatures, and anything else that can fully immerse us in the rhythms of the village. The true wonder, as with all his novels, is their ability to have us empathize with each character, especially the ones we could never love, or even like. Don’t be fooled by what the jacket says the book is ‘about’; no simple explanation can convey what a total experience it is to read Jon McGregor.” —David Costas, East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, CA)

“In a small, isolated village in the north of England, a 13 year-old girl on Christmas holiday with her parents goes missing—an event that unsettles the village and its inhabitants for the next decade. In a most unusual flowing style, McGregor has concocted a view of the evolution of the village, the seasons, the wildlife, the rhythm of farming, and the interactions of the inhabitants in page long paragraphs. This seductive view of English village life is curiously anachronistic but still rooted in contemporary events and problems. Chapter after chapter, the season change, the people evolve, and the missing girl continues to be sought. Captivating.” —Darwin Ellis, Books on the Common (Ridgefield, CT)

“This novel is deeply stirring and incredibly poetic. Following the simple flow of daily life in a small town will resonate with everyone who has lived in or visited a rural area. The intricacies of relationships and the echo of sorrow over one family’s loss ripples through years of average daily life. This beautiful and melancholic book is perfect for anyone who wants to explore the deep connections of a small but tight-knit community.” —Ashley Dickson, Buffalo Street Books (Ithaca, NY)

“A 13-year-old girl disappears while on holiday with her parents in an English village. The search for her is unsuccessful. Thereafter, life in the village is revealed to the reader, year after year, as if watching a bank of CCTV monitors. Life goes on as before—the same—but not really the same. Nothing happens—but everything happens. It is hauntingly atmospheric, mesmerizing prose. Hard to put down.” —Jean Evans, Common Good Books (St. Paul, MN)