The Long Water by Stef Penney

 

The Long Water by Stef Penney.

Published 4th July 2024 by Quercus.

From the cover of the book:

Nordland. A region in the Norwegian Arctic; a remote valley that stretches from the sea up to the mountains and glaciers.

It is May in what was once a prosperous mining community. The snows are nearly gone and it's a time of spring and school-leavers' celebrations - until Daniel, a popular teenage boy, goes missing. Conflicting stories circulate among his friends, of parties and wild behaviour.

As the search for Daniel widens, the police open a disused mine in the mountains. They find human remains, but this body has been there for decades, its identity a mystery.

Everyone in this tight knit, isolated community is touched by these events: misanthropic Svea, whose long life in the area stretches back to the heyday of the mines, and beyond. She has cut all ties with her family, except for her granddaughter, Elin, an outsider like her grandmother. Elin and her friend Benny, both impacted by Daniel while he was alive, become entangled in the hunt for answers, while Svea has deep, dark secrets of her own.

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It is May in Norland, a remote valley in the narrow part of northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle and dominated by mountains, glaciers, and far-reaching fjords. Once a prosperous mining region, this is a area of tight-knit communities with long memories, but springtime is for the young, especially the high school students marking their final school term with the high-jinks of the traditional russ celebrations.

When popular student Daniel goes missing, the community is sent reeling. A police search finds no trace of him in the rugged terrain, and rumours abound of risky stunts, drinking games and drug taking among the group of school leavers who call themselves the Hellraisers. No one knows quite what to believe, and they are only confused more when the search uncovers a grisly discovery when decades-old human remains in one of the long-sealed mines...

The novel unfurls in delicious Nordic noir, slow-burn style, bleeding seamlessly between the present and the past to reveal the impact of secrets, lies and mysterious disappearances on the community. Formidable Svea, estranged from almost everyone in her family, and her forthright grand-daughter Elin are the focus of the story. Penney uses them to anchor burgeoning storylines with a scattered multi-generational cast, that delve back in time to the war-time and mining histories of Norland, and weave into the police investigation in the present.

This is a plot that positively oozes secrets, dysfunctional relationships, and the tension of interactions between grandparents, parents, and grandchildren shaped by the family baggage they carry, all of which have bearing on the mysteries that lie at the heart of the community. And each generation gives us a glimpse of a different part of the puzzles that need to be solved about sins of the past, unresolved trauma, unexplained disappearances, estrangements, troubled friendships, and broken marriages - all excellent Nordic noir fayre.

Grouchy loner Svea (who springs from the page) and old timer Odd Emil (grand-father of the missing boy) have an unconventional relationships that is absolute gold and key to unravelling the grittier sections of the story mired in themes of difficult families, abuses, regrets, and vengeance. Penney sensitively contrasts and compares these elements with bang-up-to-date themes of teenage angst, belonging, gender identity, and sexuality through the quite lovely friendship between Elin and her friend Benny - whose vulnerability really stirs the emotions. And in-between there are lashings of richly embroidered threads about the characters caught between parents and children, valiantly dealing with all that entails in a community coming apart at the seams. I was intrigued by the way the connection between outsiders and neurodivergence is explored too.

This is my first book by Stef Penney, and I must admit that I really was not sure it was for me when I started reading it, despite my love of Nordic fiction. She has quite a distinctive literary writing style, and the diverse storylines do take a while to come together, but I became utterly hooked. There is actually something quite addictive about a writer who gradually wins you over and works their way under your skin, and I am delighted to have found a new author that fascinates me - I can see Stef Penney's back-catalogue and I becoming rather good friends. 

The Long Water is available to buy now in hardback, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Quercus for ending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Stef Penney is a screenwriter and the author of three novels: The Tenderness of Wolves (2006), The Invisible Ones (2011), and Under a Pole Star (2016). She has also written extensively for radio, including adaptations of Moby Dick, The Worst Journey in the World, and, mostly recently, a third instalment of Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise series.

The Tenderness of Wolves won Costa Book of the Year, Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year, and was translated into thirty languages. It has just been re-issued in a 10th anniversary edition.