The North Water Audiobook By Ian McGuire cover art

The North Water

A Novel

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The North Water

By: Ian McGuire
Narrated by: John Keating
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.24

Buy for $20.24

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

A 19th-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp, and highly original tale that grips like a thriller.

Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.

In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: Who will survive until spring?

With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, Ian McGuire's The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.

©2016 Ian McGuire (P)2016 Macmillan Audio
Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Sea Adventures Adventure Polar Region Transportation Scary Mystery Exciting Suspense Discovery
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

" The North Water...is a great white shark of a book - swift, terrifying, relentless and unstoppable." ( The New York Times)
"Riveting and darkly brilliant.... The North Water feels like the result of an encounter between Joseph Conrad and Cormac McCarthy in some run-down port as they offer each other a long, sour nod of recognition." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"[An] audacious work of historical suspense fiction.... It's the poetic precision of McGuire's harsh vision of the past that makes his novel such a standout...absolutely transporting." (NPR's Fresh Air)

What listeners say about The North Water

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    742
  • 4 Stars
    480
  • 3 Stars
    185
  • 2 Stars
    52
  • 1 Stars
    25
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    956
  • 4 Stars
    300
  • 3 Stars
    65
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    18
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    671
  • 4 Stars
    421
  • 3 Stars
    175
  • 2 Stars
    43
  • 1 Stars
    36

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fiction for men

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The author brilliantly creates a world you can nearly inhabit

Who was your favorite character and why?

The deplorable but resilient Drax. Who will be left in his wake?

What about John Keating’s performance did you like?

Amazing performance with accents tilted just enough to carry you onto the ship and ice

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The men gathered in the tent burning the last vestiges of wood

Any additional comments?

Will listen to this one again

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

strong in words as in tension, absorbing

What made the experience of listening to The North Water the most enjoyable?

The performance of the reader was magnificent and the description and choice of words very precise (although I not always knew all of them - as a non native English reader)

What did you like best about this story?

The unexpected turns and twists of the story

Which scene was your favorite?

Many different once. For example: In the captain Brownlee's office when Sumner asks to be allowed to examine Drax or when they catch the polar bear cub. I was fascinated how the writer described smells and sounds.

If you could take any character from The North Water out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I think the only one I would feel safe is Patrick Sumner

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A "Man's Man" Book

Women and Ladies will find this repulsive of language, description, jargon and assault. That said, this is compelling writing, historical fiction and heroism under fire. The surgeon is dragooned into a mid 19th century whale ship fitted out with the worst of humanity: Read Psychopaths in small quarters. But the plot and style draw you in to adventure writing, the horror of a singular profession and prose colored with a broad, expressionist brush. This is the literature equivalent of German Expressionist painting. It is brutal in scope and yet fine in insight.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good but too graphic

I like reading both non fiction and fiction writing about men and ships in the cold, unforgiving regions both north and south. I feared at first that this book was going to be a re-telling and simplification of Moby Dick, but even though there were a few similarities, the story stands on its own. It is a good story, and I liked the narrator, but some of the graphic detail was too much. Yes, I know it’s a ship of hardened seamen and the coarse talk is to be expected, but some of the detail of violence and bodily functions seemed unnecessary. Would I recommend this book? Yes, with a caution about the graphic content.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The North Water

is a rare gem in contemporary literature. I can only hope the other books are half as good.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Gratuitous vulgarity

The story was engaging and generally well written when not caught up in dialogue. Although I can appreciate that the dialogue might have been accurate to the time and place, the endless slinging of expletives was totally unnecessary and detracted from, rather than added to the tale.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo!

Bravo to John Keating for his outstanding performance of the multiple dialects in this novel. His narrative performance is one of the best I have heard, and ramped up the appreciation of this great adventure. Ian McGuire is a gifted writer with unbridled imaginative energy, sharp and confident writing, bold and crushing. The writing is tight, gritty, and dense, and there is no fluff. Every sentence is doing heavy lifting. This is a gritty, mean, stark, and stinking story. There is a lot of rank smells and noises, depravity, greed, ignorance, filth, and McGuire describes it to its basics. The Audible performance lends such great appreciation of he novel, as I read along while reading, as I usually do. But I can see this performance as very entertaining while driving on a long trip, Keating is such a great story-teller. I highly recommend this novel. I can see it landing on recommended or even required reading lists in the future, it is so finely hewn as a piece of imagination and writing. Read it, and/or listen to it. There are some great characters and Keating makes it all worthwhile in handling all the dialects.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

YES! Great story, fascinating characters.

What other book might you compare The North Water to and why?

Moby Dick

Have you listened to any of John Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Excellent

If you could take any character from The North Water out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Drax....hah....you have to read the book to find out.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Quite the Tale

Well paced. Excellent dialogue. Thoughtful and even a bit wistful. Flawlessly narrated. May not be for the faint of heart, but it captured the harshness and brutality of both nature and man in a realistic and captivating manner.

Bennett Gaev

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very Gruesome

Don't listen to this if you've just eaten or are squimish, but Otherwise good book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!