Haweswater Author:Sarah Hall A first novel of love, obsession and the destruction of a community, told with grace and artistry. It is 1936 in a remote dale in the old county of Westmorland. For centuries the rural community has remained the same - the Lightburn family have been immersed in the harsh hill-farming tradition. Then a man from the city of Manchester arrives, spo... more »kesman for a vast industrial project which will devastate both the landscape and the local community. Mardale will be flooded to create a new reservoir. In the coming year this corner of Lakeland will be evacuated and transformed. When Jack Liggett, the Waterworks' representative, begins a troubled affair with Janet Lightburn, things take a further turn for the worse. A woman of force and resolve, her natural orthodoxy deeply influences him. Finally, in tragic circumstances, a remarkable, desperate act on Janet's part attempts to restore the valley to its former state. Told in luminous prose with an intuitive sense for period and place, Haweswater remembers a rural England that has been disappearing for decades, and introduces a young storyteller of great imaginative and emotional power.« less
I found the book rather boring. Hall's writing style is sometimes poetic and sometimes that writing becomes forced. The best parts were where Hall had to do some historical research of the book. I felt that she wrote those passages best.