by Thomas McMullan
By the winner of the Betty Trask Prize - an atmospheric and powerfully menacing story about family, secrets and violence.
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 Glasgow-born writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in London. His work spans fiction, poetry, theatre, and video games, alongside journalism for outlets such as The Guardian, TLS, BBC News, frieze, and ArtReview. His short stories and poetry have appeared in Granta, 3:AM Magazine, Best British Short Stories, and other journals. Beyond literature, he was lead narrative designer on Rollerdrome, which won the 2023 BAFTA for Best British Game. A winner of the 2021 Betty Trask Prize, he is also a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King’s College London.
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