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

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 is a writer and artist. His debut novel, The Last Good Man won the 2021 Betty Trask Prize. His short fiction and poetry have been published in Granta, 3:AM Magazine and Best British Short Stories, and his journalism has appeared in the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Frieze, ArtReview and BBC News. He has also worked with theatre companies and games studios in London, Amsterdam and Los Angeles, including Punchdrunk, The Chinese Room and Roll7 (Bafta: Best British Game, 2023). He lives in Ramsgate.
thomasmcmullan.com