3. ‘Waterland’ by Graham Swift
I first read Graham Swift’s 1983 novel at university and I’ve returned to it again and again ever since. It’s clever and complex, with a circling, looping story that whips you from the past to the present as the narrator, history teacher Tom Crick, talks to his class about his life growing up in The Fens in England’s East Anglia. The book’s overarching theme is history: how history repeats itself and how our personal histories affect our lives. But, it’s also a page-turning mystery that swirls towards a climax involving murder, incest and kidnap. Swift’s writing is disarmingly evocative and one of my favourite things is the way he conjures up the flat, wet world of The Fens. The place comes to feel like a character in its own right, and you realise how the eel-filled, phlegmy landscape has shaped Tom’s life. I’m still totally floored and bewitched by it.